Sizwe Sama Yende
Sizwe Sama Yende | |
---|---|
Born | Sizwe Petrus Yende August 29, 1977 |
Nationality | South African |
Occupation | Journalist |
Organization | The People's Eye |
Sizwe Petrus Yende (born 29 August 1977 in Daggakraal) is a South African journalist and the author of Eerie Assignment. He is a former chief correspondent of the City Press' newspaper in Mpumalanga. He is an investigative and political journalist and the founder of The People's Eye.[1][2][3]
His Eerie Assignment memoir details his journalistic journey in the province of Mpumalanga while uncovering corruption under constant intimidation in a province that has become notorious for politically motivated assassinations.[4][5][6]
Career
[edit]Sama Yende's journalism career began in the late 1990s with the now defunct Mpumalanga news agency, African Eye News Service (AENS), after being recruited by Mzilikazi wa Afrika who had come to Daggakraal to cover president Nelson Mandela's visit for AENS. Writing the foreword of Eerie Assignment in 2017, Wa Afrika said of meeting Sama Yende:[7]
To my surprise, the young man, full of shyness and speaking with his right hand on his mouth, said: ‘I want to be a journalist like you’. I spoke to the teenager for about 15 minutes and I realised that although he was 18 years old he had an extraordinary agility of mind and passion for journalism. He was a local Daggakraal boy.
Three weeks later Wa Afrika introduced the young man to the editor of AENS, Justin Arenstein, who accepted him on the condition that Wa Afrika would train and mentor him, which Wa Afrika agreed to do. Since then, Sama Yende worked for the AENS and spent nine years with the news agency - starting from that week in 1997. He left AENS in 2004 to go work for the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research but returned to AENS a year later before becoming City Press’s Limpopo bureau chief in 2006. He then worked for the Sekhukhune District Municipality in Limpopo as a media officer for three years and returned to City Press, this time serving as the chief correspondent of the newspaper in Mpumalanga. He is currently the founder and publisher of The People's Eye.[8][9]
References
[edit]- ^ Eerie Assignment: A journalist's nightmare in Mpumalanga, Polity.org.za, 4 April 2018. Retrieved 31 August 2021
- ^ Journo in close shave with gunman, IOL, 7 August 2010. Retrieved 31 August 2021
- ^ Why David Mabuza did not take the oath – it’s the long game, Daily Maverick, 22 May 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2021
- ^ Journalist trained by Mzilikazi wa Afrika to release own book, 013NEWS, 16 May 2017. Retrieved 31 August 2021
- ^ DA wants answers on claims of premier's tender for pal Pretoria News, 14 December 2010. Retrieved 31 August 2021
- ^ My book doesn't say anybody killed anyone, 013NEWS, 22 June 2017. Retrieved 31 August 2021
- ^ Journalist Sizwe Sama Yende's book, 013NEWS, 16 May 2017. Retrieved 7 January 2025
- ^ People's Eye. Retrieved 7 January 2025
- ^ Journalist Sizwe Sama Yende's book, 013NEWS, 16 May 2017. Retrieved 7 January 2025
External links
[edit]- Sizwe Sama Yende: Christmas in Mamparalanga, News24, 21 May 2017
Further reading
[edit]- Sama Yende, Sizwe (2017): Eerie Assignment: A Journalist's Nightmare in Mpumalanga. South Africa: Lesedi House Publishers. ISBN 9780620729802