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News24, along with partners amaBhungane and Daily Maverick, scooped the story of the year award for coverage of the Gupta leaks at the annual Standard Bank Sikuvile Journalism Awards in Johannesburg on Thursday.
The three titles collaborated on the leaked Gupta emails in 2017 and 2018 and were commended by the judges for their dogged commitment to exposing state capture.
The Gupta leaks project won in both the investigative journalism and story of the year categories.
News24 editor-in-chief Adriaan Basson and investigative journalists Angelique Serrao and Pieter-Louis Myburgh worked alongside colleagues from amaBhungane and Daily Maverick in an unprecedented effort to comb through the thousands of documents and emails which were leaked from the heart of the Gupta empire.
Gupta Leaks – A collaborative investigation into state capture
Serrao and Pieter du Toit also won the award for popular journalism for News24 and Huffington Post South Africa's story about former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste's alleged affair with Berdine Odendaal.
EXCLUSIVE: Markus Jooste, the blonde polo player and a room with a view
The titles worked together in tracing the details of the private life of Jooste, who was seemingly responsible for billions of rand in pensioner's funds being lost when Steinhoff crashed in December 2017.
News24 journalist Iavan Pijoos was also nominated in the hard news category for his piece, "Scenes of shock, anguish play out as parents learn of horror crash".
Scenes of shock, anguish as parents learn of horror crash
Standard Bank Sikuvile Journalism Award winners. (Supplied)
Lungisa Fuzile, CEO of Standard Bank South Africa, said the awards honour those who helped South Africans "connect the dots and keep democracy on track".
Fuzile was director general at National Treasury and resigned shortly after then president Jacob Zuma dismissed former minister of finance Pravin Gordhan in March 2017.
The evening was hosted by radio talk show host Xolani Gwala, whose cancer is in remission. He received a standing ovation when he spoke about his battle with the dreaded disease and warned journalists "to stay fit" because it saved his life.
Other winners from the Media24 stable included Jaco Grobbelaar for a graphic about Oliver Tambo in City Press, Theuns Kruger for a graphic in Beeld and Elsabé Brits, Le Roux Schoeman and Rudi Louw for a multimedia project on heart surgeon Chris Barnard.
Rapport and City Press shared the Joel Mervis Award, while Die Burger won the Frewin Award. Both are awarded for typographical excellence.
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