PRETORIA – Novus Media’s community journalists have made their mark at the 2025 AVBOB FCJ Excellence Awards, the competition widely regarded as the Oscars of the community news industry, with one outright winner and 15 finalists across multiple categories.

The annual event is hosted by the Forum of Community Journalists (FCJ), along with title sponsor AVBOB and other sponsors.

Yaseen Gaffar of DistrictMail & Helderberg Gazette took top honours, winning the municipal and local Government Reporting category, a fitting recognition for sustained engagement with local governance issues.

Alida Buckle of Weslander was the most versatile performer, placing in four categories: story of the year (seventh), editorial comment (third), hard news and investigative reporting (fourth), and news photography (fifth). Her Weslander colleague Noluvu Ludidi placed sixth in the Story of the Year category.

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Community storytellers

Lauren O’Connor-May of TygerBurger earned finalist spots in both digital reporting fourth) and human interest (sixth). Desireé Rorke (TygerBurger) was fifth in human interest, while Kailin Daniels (TygerBurger) took third in sport writing.

Helena Barnard of the NoordkaapBulletin placed 10th in editorial comment and Unathi Obose of City Vision was third in the vernacular category.

In headlines, Madré Marais (Bloemnuus/NoordkaapBulletin/Vista) placed fourth, Carina Roux (TygerBurger) fifth and Shirwan Newton (BloemNews/Vista/NoordkaapBulletin) 10th. Gaffar and Jamey Gordon (both DistrictMail & Helderberg Gazette) also placed in sport writing catergory, at 4th and 5th respectively.

Picture perfect

The photography categories saw further Novus Media success. Carina Roux of TygerBurger was a triple finalist – general photography (third), mobile (seventh) and sport (third). Lientjie Mentz (BloemNews) earned second in mobile photography and 10th in municipal reporting. Cecilia Hume (TygerBurger) was fifth in mobile photography, Barend Williams (DistrictMail & Helderberg Gazette) fourth in news photography, and Gordon ninth in general photography.

Eikestadnuus placed ninth in best front page category.

The awards, recognising work published in 2025, was presented at a glitzy ceremony in Menlyn Maine, Pretoria, on Friday 21 August.

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