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Dear reader,

I have boasted about the BAHons Journalism class of 2025 many a time. I have commended us for our perseverance during assessment weeks, our dedication during documentary filmmaking, and our tenacity during news weeks. As our academic year is coming to a close, some of us might feel that we have lost the steam in our engines. There has not been any new content that I could brag about for the past few weeks. At least, not on a public forum. However, this very important second last week of class brought with it possibly the most monumental achievement yet.

On Wednesday, we officially launched the Stellenbosch Media Forum Project of 2025. 

I have praised our class’s ability for hard work before, but now we can truly applaud the end result of all that hard work. To fully appreciate this project, I must remind you of exactly how much effort went into it. We were the first class in the journalism department to be tasked with creating both a print project and a website. Initially, there was no clear instruction on how exactly this would work, so much of our time went towards figuring that out: How do we create two components for the same project that are different enough to stand on their own but similar enough to be complimentary? Many trials and tribulations led us to the finished magazine, for which each person had to design a layout and write a short piece about their article. The full-length articles would be housed on the website, which took (what felt like) unending days of subbing, fact-checking, and subbing again. The website posed a new challenge altogether, as it became clear that web design was not as intuitive as we made ourselves believe in the beginning. 

With all of that behind us, we can formally introduce our project for 2025:

The launch event included a panel discussion with our editor-in-chief, Buhle Bam, our news editor, Ishmael Mabena, our distribution and activation manager, Rentia Weber, and, of course, our course convenor, Anneli Groenewald. The conversation was led by Dr Riaan Oppelt from the English department. They discussed what it means to be an active citizen in South Africa today and how impactful the people are who are fighting for small changes every day. To accompany this, there is a photo exhibition of our best photos of the year currently on display at the Stellenbosch University Museum. A very special thank you goes out to Dirk Meerkotter and Zandri van Zyl, who very patiently helped us with putting together the website and magazine. 

The evening allowed us a chance to truly admire ourselves for all the work that we have accomplished this year, which we now get to share with the rest of our communities. Please visit our website for 26 lovely articles on living an Active Public Life.

In addition to this big celebration, we also have the finalists for our countdown:

The top ten non-time sensitive stories of the year: *

10. 📚 Cloetesville-biblioteek vereer top-lesers | SMF News
    Deur Hannah Abrahams

9. 🎂 ‘O’Koek’: 100 cakes to celebrate women’s month | SMF News
   By Annemieke Thomaidis

8. 🪗 Trekklaviere, konsertinas kry hul dag by Stellenbosse fees | SMF News
   Deur Kobus Erasmus

7. 🏊🏽New children’s swimming initiative might have its splashes halted | SMF News
   By Christopher Naidoo

6. 🐑 R1.2 million reward to find Franschhoek’s famous painting sheep | SMF News
   By Kiara Wales

*Picked by the newsletter editor, based on her own personal preferences.

A very big well done to everyone for their hard work this year!

Anke Spies, newsletter editor.

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