WATCH | Young Sowetan reporter among Sikuvile finalists alongside industry heavyweights

For many young journalists, having their bylines published is a major milestone. For Nandi Ntini, her second year in the Sowetan newsroom has delivered something far bigger, a national award nomination alongside some of South Africa’s most established journalists.

The Sowetan reporter has been named a finalist in the hard news category in the Standard Bank Sikuvile Journalism Awards, with winners expected to be announced in July.

Ntini said reality has not fully sunk in. “When I found out on Monday [that I’ve been nominated] I was so nervous that I kept crying. I didn’t even tell my twin sister. I just kept crying,” she said.

The 27-year-old Soweto resident said she submitted her entry in March and had forgotten about it.

“I applied in March and I thought they were going to respond in a few weeks. You know how applications work. So I was like, ‘OK, it’s fine’. Then on Monday, boom. I found out I was a finalist in the hard news category.”

“I’m nervous, even now. I don’t know how I feel because I’m like, I’ve just arrived in this journalism thing and here I am.”

I feel honoured to be placed alongside such big people. That’s the biggest thing for me

—  Nandi Ntini

Her nomination becomes even more significant considering she will be competing against seasoned journalists who have spent years in the industry.

“I’m happy and excited, but also, I’m like, wow, so that’s me now. I’m competing with these people,” she said.

“I searched for the two finalists I’m in the same category with, and I think that didn’t help. But I prayed. I was like, ‘if I have to be here, then I have to be here’.

“I feel honoured to be placed alongside such big people. That’s the biggest thing for me.”

The story that earned her the nomination centred on a young Ekurhuleni resident who survived a devastating house fire that killed his entire family.

For Ntini, the angle was never simply about another tragic fire.

“The story is not really about the fire, though it is about that,” she said. “It’s about how this boy, Jovencio Tembe, had his entire family wiped out in the fire and he survived because he was sleeping in an outside room.”

What struck her most was his response to unimaginable loss.

“On the day after the fire, he was trying to salvage everything that was left − the pictures, his ID, anything that remained − instead of sitting in a corner and crying. He didn’t shed a single tear while we were there. He was making sure he was doing something.”

One detail stayed with her long after she had left the scene.

“It was so sad because the last thing he heard was his mother and sister calling for help, saying, ‘Please help us, help us’, because he had been awakened by a neighbour.”

Ntini said what matters is telling the story in a different way.

“We’ve done fire stories before, and they are always about an entire family being wiped out, but not about the one person who remains behind and the pain they are going through.

“That day he didn’t seem like someone who was crying or anything, but you could see that once he eventually sat down, everything would come back to him.”

Sowetan