Little provides more pleasure than witnessing the flourishing of those once mentored. Over the years I’ve enjoyed great joy watching the progress of many whom I helped guide during their early years in financial journalism. But few public accolades struck as delighted a chord as seeing former Moneyweb colleague Micel Schenhage honoured this week as 2013 Property News Journalist of the Year. Hers is a really special achievement.
Micel, you see, has been struggling lately with a lot more than meeting deadlines. During most of the period when her award winning entry was compiled, she battled serious illness, debilitating medication and everything that goes with it. Just showing up at work between periods of hospitalisation took almost super-human effort. Yet there she was most days, smiling as ever, working her contacts, making the calls. She brought new meaning to “vasbyt” – an old Army term referring to one’s ability to grit your teeth to get through really tough patches.
We worked together at Moneyweb for just over two years. During this time she’ll doubtless remember me best for harping on about her smoking cigarettes. Micel answered back in the best way she could – by producing excellent articles. It was Micel who saw the value in travelling to Cape Town for a look inside a R300m Camps Bay home, producing one of the site’s best read stories last year. She was the one who got her teeth into shenanigans at the Estate Agent’s Board. And she tipped the rest of us off when property mogul Marc Wainer took a very public vote against corrupt municipalities by withdrawing his group from areas where governance was poor. And there was more. Much more.
But what makes Micel’s award so meritorius is her ability to produce award winning work while shrugging off the kind of personal challenges that would send most of humanity into self-absorbed depression. She is a fighter. Something found only in the really good journalists. As she showed the previous time our paths crossed professionally at the SABC. When, in the run-up to the 1994 Election, she and her great friend, the late Veronica vd Westhuizen, would go fearlessly into the hottest of unrest spots, one for radio, the other for TV.
Well done to SAPOA for honouring Micel’s efforts. I cannot think of a more deserving winner of any journalistic award. Ever. The girl from Potch has done real good. Long may she continue to rattle cages.
