The National Press Club, the largest club representing journalists and communication professionals, has named Eskom and load shedding 2022 Newsmaker of the Year.

This annual award, made by the National Press Club since 1980, awards a Newsmaker in a calendar year based on the amount of media coverage received as well as the impact thereof.

The spectacle around the power utility’s inability to deliver on its mandate to power the country as well as perennial empty promises to end load-shedding dominated news coverage in 2022 and still is.

Nominations and motivations for the award were received from members of the press club and a final decision was made by the club’s executive committee.

Award neither accolade nor criticism

Chairperson of the National Press Club Antoinette Slabbert said the Newsmaker Award was neither an accolade nor criticism, explaining that it represents the dominant themes of the 2022 news cycle.

With escalation of load shedding into blackouts, at some point even up to stage 6, leadership crisis, reports of sabotage, military guarding power plants, escalating costs of energy generation, she said it came as no surprise that Eskom and load shedding would scoop the award.

“The decision to name Eskom and load shedding as the Newsmaker was an easy one as we have all helplessly witnessed blackouts rattle the livelihoods of many South Africans and continue to force a lot of businesses to close down completely. Who can forget that Sowetan front page of 16 January …that went as far as naming some of the businesses that had been crippled by load shedding” Slabbert said in a statement.

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She said all eyes are on President Cyril Ramaphosa as the country continues to battle these ruthless and destructive blackout spats.

Ramaphosa, Slabbert said, was the leader of government business, which includes Eskom, during the ‘nine wasted years’ and continues to oversee the administration under which Eskom falls, this time around as the sitting President of the country.

Past Recipients

She said both the Newsmaker and the winners of the Journalist of the Year competition will be recognised formally, at a special dinner event to be held in April 2023, in partnership with the North-West University.

Previous recipients of the National Press Club Newsmaker of the Year award include former Presidents  FW de Klerk, Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma, Hollywood star Charlize Theron, #FeesMustFall, Gupta Leaks as well as Covid-19.

In 2013 the award to then Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, who donated the R5 000 cash prize to the Agstelaan informal settlement in Valhalla Park, Cape Town.

She believed the funds would make a difference to its residents as hundreds of families lost their homes and possessions after a fire gutted the area.

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