At its first Council meeting for 2025, in Cape Town, the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) elected Makhudu Sefara as its new chairperson. Sefara is the editor of the Sunday Times and previously chaired Sanef’s Media Freedom sub-committee. He replaces Nwabisa Makunga who relinquished the position following her promotion to an executive role at Arena.
Sefara thanked his predecessor for her leadership and challenged the organisation to follow in her footsteps in defending media freedom and strengthening the industry that is facing strong economic headwinds.
“I take this opportunity seriously and note that it comes at a time when the industry is facing a myriad of challenges. Many newsrooms are asking the question of how they are going to turn the corner without losing faith and hoping for better solutions as they go through retrenchments and having critical positions frozen, which has an impact on the quality of the work and therefore an impact on the quality of the contribution journalism makes to our much-cherished democracy,” Sefara said.
He thanked all newsroom leaders for continuing to do a sterling job of telling the South African story and “doing this not for themselves but for the country even with limited capacity”.
Slindile Khanyile, publishing editor of Umbele, an isiZulu financial publication, is the new chairperson of the SANEF Media Freedom sub-committee.
Sanef also congratulated Phathiswa Magopeni on her appointment as the new Executive Director of the Press Council of South Africa. Thivhudzi Lukoto, executive producer at SAFM: News and Current Affairs, is Sanef’s new representative at the PCSA.
The Minister’s address
Basic Education Minister, Siviwe Gwarube, addressed the council where she emphasised the importance of strong media in the functioning of our democracy.
Even with challenges facing newsrooms due to the economic challenges in the sector, Gwarube said South Africa should never underestimate the privilege it has of a free media that is “able to hold those entrusted with the power to account, inform and critique the government without journalists landing in jail”.
“Free press is fundamental when it comes to a constitutional democracy, it can’t thrive without a free press that is capable of exposing wrongdoing,” she said.
The minister shared her department’s plans and priorities over the next five years.
She spoke about the importance of fixing the country’s broken education system with a focus on developing the foundation phase. The country has to inject quality education from early child childhood development, instead of over-emphasising Matric results and using it as a barometer of the country’s education system.
“We cannot have an education system that is stitched together by interventions where learners in Grades 10, 11, and 12 are sent to boot camps and kept in schools around the clock just to make them obtain good Matric pass rates,” said Gwarube.
Challenges and opportunities of freelance journalism
Sanef discussed the research report on the plight of freelance journalists, which painted a bleak future for freelance writers and described their working conditions as untenable. It noted the profound transformations in media labour and the limited research on the state and working conditions of freelance journalists.
Sanef partnered with the Henry Nxumalo Foundation to commission a study aimed at understanding the current state of freelance journalism in South Africa.
The research report highlights both the challenges and opportunities of freelance journalism in the country – noting that freelance journalism has become increasingly prominent, especially in South Africa, a trend exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and its normalisation of remote work.
Sanef will amend its constitution to allow senior freelancers to become members and repurpose its Community Media sub-committee to also include issues affecting freelancers.
Sanef has decided to draft a charter of minimum norms and standards for engaging freelancers. This charter will be shared with newsrooms around the country as guidelines for editors to help improve the working conditions of freelancers in the industry. Sanef has tasked veteran journalist, Anton Harber, to lead the process of drafting the guidelines for the media sector.
Cutting off financial assistance
Sanef noted the move by U.S. President Donald Trump to cut funding to USAID. Sanef is concerned by this move, and how it will harm the functioning of some organisations that do media advocacy work and investigative journalism.
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Media’s role in an SA G20 year
Sanef has decided to proceed with a programme of events, consultations, and inputs aimed at bringing attention to issues affecting the media in Africa and the world – to coincide with South Africa’s Presidency of the G20 and the country’s hosting of the G20 Summit in November 2025.
This work will focus on the media, highlighting the role of AI in journalism, information integrity, and taking forward issues raised during Brazil’s Presidency of the G20 in 2024. Several local and international media development organisations have already expressed an interest in participating, including media representatives from G20 countries.
Note to Editors:
The South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) is a non-profit organisation whose members are editors, senior journalists, and journalism trainers from all areas of South African media. We are committed to championing South Africa’s hard-won freedom of expression and promoting quality, ethics, and diversity in the South African media. We promote excellence in journalism by fighting for media freedom, writing policy submissions, research, and education and training programmes. Sanef is not a union.
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Publish date : 2025-02-10 07:15:24
