AIP congratulates Shirley Govender on winning the 2025 Nat Nakasa Community Media Award
Johannesburg – The Association of Independent Publishers (AIP) proudly congratulates our member Shirley Govender, publisher of Globe Post, Orange Farm News, and Walkerville & Savanna City Times, on receiving the 2025 Nat Nakasa Community Media Award for Courageous Journalism.
Govender has been a fearless voice in community media since 1992, when she launched her first newspaper as an anti-apartheid platform. Despite harassment, intimidation, and even arrest, she has never missed an edition, ensuring that marginalised communities remain informed and heard. Today she leads three township publications through her company Xenor Projects and continues to pioneer sustainable, solutions-focused journalism.
Reflecting on the award, Govender said the recognition was, “an emotional and humbling moment – especially as this was the first time I submitted my work for an award.” She added, “It is a reminder that community journalists are not only storytellers but community builders, holding space for truth and accountability where it matters most. In a time when independent media faces immense pressure, this award affirms the value and impact of grassroots journalism in strengthening our democracy.”
Her decades of work have been recognised both locally and internationally: she was named one of Cosmopolitan magazine’s pioneering women of colour publishers in 1997. She was featured in research on innovative publishing models and in 2024 she launched the Solutions Journalism Institute South Africa to foster healthier news narratives and new revenue models. She serves on AIP’s Sustainability Committee and SANEF’s Community and Education & Training sub-committees.
About the Nat Nakasa Awards
The Nat Nakasa Award for Courageous Journalism is presented annually to a South African media practitioner in newspapers, magazines, broadcasting, or online media whose reporting upholds freedom of speech and demonstrates integrity and courage. The award is managed and presented by the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF).
The award is named in honour of Nat Nakasa (1937–1965), a pioneering black South African journalist and writer who lived through harsh apartheid conditions.
Previous AIP Winners
Nathan Geffen (GroundUp) won the Nat Nakasa Community Media Award in 2021, together with Raymond Joseph. The award recognised their reporting into corruption, maladministration and nepotism at the National Lotteries Commission (NLC). Their work reflected bold, principled journalism carried out despite threats, formal complaints and legal pressure.
Again in 2023, GroundUp won the award for mainstream journalism when Daniel Steyn and Marecia Damons were featured for their investigative work on the Thabo Bester prison escape story.
Anton van Zyl, publisher of the Limpopo Mirror and Zoutpansberger, won the Nat Nakasa Award for Community Media in the same year. His long history of exposing corruption (including work on the National Lotteries Commission with GroundUp) and fighting for transparency at local municipal level were specifically cited with respect and admiration.
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For more information or to arrange interviews, please contact:
AIP Chairperson: Anetta Mangxaba 084 263 9105 / [email protected]
AIP Deputy Chairperson: Johannes Makgate 076 173 3161 / [email protected]
AIP Executive Director: Kate Skinner 082 926 6404 / 011 713 9614 / [email protected]
AIP Office Manger: Valent Shoatja 078 683 3497 / 011 713 9614 / [email protected]
Note to Editors:
The Association of Independent Publishers (AIP) is a vibrant national organisation for advancing the interests of the local grassroots independent print and online media sector in South Africa.
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