SANEF chairperson Sbu Ngalwa, WCJ director Dr Dinesh Balliah, Deloitte Africa CEO Ruwayda Redfearn, Amargi Media CEO Nikiwe Bikitsha, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at Wits University Prof Mucha Musemwa and Deloitte Africa CSO Ashleigh Theophanides at the fellowship launch.
The South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) has launched an exciting new financial journalism fellowship aimed at mid-career journalists. The fellowship is sponsored by Deloitte South Africa with funding for the next three years, and will be administered by the Wits Centre for Journalism (WCJ).
The SANEF Fellowship in Financial Journalism will offer specialised training over six months, and equip candidates to accurately report on complex financial matters. Students will engage with local financial and journalism experts giving them the opportunity to expand their networks and produce more in-depth stories and economic news.
The course has been identified as suitable for upskilling journalists with experience who seek to further understand complex financial and regulatory issues for accurate reporting. The fellowship will be delivered to cohorts of about twenty journalists from October this year and another twenty in 2024.
Sbu Ngalwa, SANEF’s chairperson said, “This is a ground-breaking development and a much-needed intervention in the journalism industry. Over the years, we have seen the depletion and lack of investment in newsrooms, thus eroding the available skills. This specialist training in financial journalism will go a long way in ensuring that South African journalists continue to speak truth to power and have the necessary skills to make sense of complex financial matters. This is a boost for our profession, and our country’s democracy will be all the better for that.”
Deloitte Africa CEO, Ruwayda Redfearn said, “Business has an essential role to play in improving society, including advancing economic opportunity. Our support for this initiative is informed by the critical role we as Deloitte play in upholding trust within the financial markets and broader society. Quality financial journalism has a critical role to play in this process.”
Redfearn further adds, “South Africa has a rich tradition of financial journalism, and the fellowship aims to deepen and diversify this pool, with an increased weighting on Black females as part of the selection process to help drive transformation.”
The coursework was developed by both SANEF and the WCJ, in close consultation with Deloitte South Africa, which will use its experts and client network to provide supplementary masterclasses.
Course work and applications
The course aims to provide working journalists with the skills and knowledge required to be an effective, critically thinking financial journalist. We are living in an increasingly complex world. More than ever, we need well-trained financial journalists able to think critically about the issues we face, to serve as watchdogs for the wider public and to make sense of complex events that shape our economies and livelihoods. Working on case studies and practical examples in class prepares journalists for the newsroom.
OUTCOMES
At the end of the course, successful participants should be able to:
• Think critically about financial and economic events and place them in their broader context
• Understand the basic principles and key concepts of finance and economics
• Communicate financial concepts in an accessible manner
• Report effectively on markets, statistics, companies and the economy
• Reflect on the role of the financial journalist in the wider society
APPLY
To apply, please send a copy of your ID or passport, CV, and a letter of motivation to gillian.jones@wits.ac.za. The course is open to applicants from across Africa, but you must be based in Johannesburg for the six-month duration of the course, which begins on 16 October, 2023.
The application deadline is 6 October, 2023.
For application queries, please contact gillian.jones@wits.ac.za or admissions@journalism.co.za.
