Freelance journalist John Grobler on Saturday won the environment award at the 2016 CNN MultiChoice African Journalist Awards (AJA) in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Grobler and his editor, Fiona Macleod based in South Africa, received the award.
The awards are organised by MultiChoice and Cable News Network (CNN) and create a platform to encourage journalists and reinforce the importance of their role in Africa’s development.
Grobler’s winning story investigated black rhino poaching activities in the Kunene Region.
He said the story took him from August 2014 to September 2015 to complete and looked at various aspects of black rhino poaching and illegal dealing in the sale of rhino horns.
He told on Saturday the story was published by as Namibian media could not publish it on the basis of its length, which was about 2 500 words.
Grobler said he was happy to win the award at continental level. This was the second time he entered for the awards, having done so in 2008 as well. He however did not win that year.
“I am happy, looking back at the time I spent on this story, the challenges I faced and my general efforts in contributing towards saving the few rhinos we have in the country,” he said.
He added that he will continue investigating rhino poaching and expose the culprits involved in the illegal activity.
Grobler is a freelance journalist based in Windhoek. He has been doing investigative reporting for the past 20 years with a specific interest in the intersect between organised crime and natural resource exploitation.
He was born in Windhoek and studied at the universities of Cape Town and Stellenbosch, and has written for major international news outlets such as the New York Times and The Guardian.
The overall winners of the 2016 CNN MultiChoice AJA are Asha Ahmed Mwilu and Rashid Idi, both of whom work for the Kenya Television Network.
Journalists from Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, Mozambique and Benin won in the categories of sports reporting, technology and innovation, economics, feature writing and health, amongst others.
Over 1 600 entries from 38 countries in Africa were received in the 14 award categories.
More than 750 guests attended the event including Namibia’s Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Tjekero Tweya and Minister of Works and Transport Alpheus !Naruseb.
