Mondi Shanduka Newspaper Lifetime Achiever Award

The Newspaper Association of South Africa (NASA) and Mondi Shanduka Newsprint launched the first Mondi Shanduka Newspaper Lifetime Achiever Award in January this year, calling for nominations by senior management and editors within the media industry.

The Award seeks to honour newspaper journalists who have made a significant contribution towards furthering the interests of newspaper journalism in South Africa over a career of at least 20 years.

"Dr Klaaste demonstrated impeccable ethics and craft excellence throughout his career, resulting in journalism that has richly contributed to South Africa," says Professor Guy Berger, convenor of the Mondi Shanduka Newspaper Awards judging panel.

Klaaste dedicated his life to the profession of journalism and the upliftment of South African society through his "Nation Building" campaign, which he initiated in 1988 when he became editor of the Sowetan newspaper. Through his focus on quality journalism that reflected the interest of his readers, Klaaste lifted the newspaper from a sale of about 120,000 copies a day in 1988 to an average of 250,000, with some circulation highs above 300,000. In doing so, he led a team from being a township publication with limited reach to a newspaper with national influence.

Through the "Nation Building" programme, he was able to turn the newspaper from a carrier of news to a newspaper which changed people's lives through its practical on-the-ground projects.

During the dark days of the struggle against apartheid, Sowetan unashamedly supported the liberation movement as a whole, as a balanced non-party political activist newspaper. Sowetan's marketing campaigns aimed at its readers communicated that Sowetan 'answered to you, the people, and not to any political party or person'

It was a delicate balancing act during a difficult time in the country's history in that while the newspaper supported the struggle against the apartheid government, it had to do so without being banned as did its predecessor, The World. Klaaste had worked at The World where he was arrested and spent time in detention because of the editorial content of the paper.

On the whole, Klaaste was an outstanding journalist who edited a successful newspaper in terms of readership reach, circulation number, and influence in society and with the understanding that Sowetan was a business in a competitive media environment.