Baldwin Ndaba remembered as ‘a newspaper man’s reporter’

Sanef, veteran journalists and political leaders have paid tribute to Baldwin Ndaba, remembering the veteran reporter as a fearless accountability journalist, mentor and beloved newsroom presence whose work left a lasting mark on South African journalism

The South African National Editors’ Forum has paid tribute to journalist Baldwin Ndaba, whose death on Friday has left colleagues, friends and South Africa’s media fraternity mourning the loss of a reporter remembered as fearless, humane and deeply committed to public accountability journalism.

For those who worked alongside him, Ndaba was more than a byline. He belonged to a generation of journalists who believed journalism was not simply a profession but a public trust, one that demanded courage, humility and an unwavering commitment to truth.

Veteran journalist Jovial Rantao described Ndaba as a “brilliant-cut rough stone”, drawing a poignant connection between the reporter’s beginnings and the city where his craft was forged.

There was, Rantao reflected, a certain poetry in the fact that Ndaba learnt journalism in Kimberley, a city built on the harsh beauty of diamonds, where something rough was pulled from the earth, painstakingly shaped and revealed as something extraordinary.