The North West Media Awards released their 2025 nominees on Friday, 15 August 2025, at BMW Rustenburg, and The Vryburg Independent Post is proud—and deeply humbled—to be among them.

This year’s awards, now hosted by the Compassion Awards Foundation and Investments (CAFI), drew more than 600 entrants and recognised over 150 nominees across 16 categories. That scale matters: it says community media in the North West is alive, competitive and needed.

We’re humbled to share that The Vryburg Independent Post has been shortlisted in three categories:

• Community Newspaper of the Year.  

• Online Media House of the Year.  

• Social Media Platform of the Year.  

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For us, these nominations are not a pat on the back; they are a public audit. They affirm the work you ask of us every day—accurate reporting on service delivery, schools, courts, sport, small business and the people who hold our towns together. They also raise the bar. Being shortlisted means our facts must be tighter, our headlines clearer, our corrections quicker, and our coverage fair to all sides, especially when issues are emotive.

Awards do not build trust—consistency does. We will keep publishing documents, giving space to right of reply, and separating news from opinion. We will continue to cover the tough stories (governance, health, education and policing) with the same energy we give to the joyful ones (local sport, youth achievements, arts and faith).

Thank you to our readers, contributors, whistle-blowers, photo tipsters and community organisations who open doors, send records and challenge our drafts. Thank you to our small but relentless team of reporters, photographers, designers and volunteers who chase quotes after hours and post updates from the side of the road. And thank you to the judges and CAFI for building a platform that puts community journalism on the same stage as bigger newsrooms.

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What happens next

• 15–30 August: nominees confirm participation and submit materials.

• 1 September–30 November: public voting and judging.

• 5 December: Awards Gala.

When public voting opens, we’ll share the official links on our pages so you can participate safely and directly. Whether we come home with trophies or not, we will keep showing up—at council chambers, court corridors, school sports fields and street corners—because that is the job.

These nominations carry our town’s name. They belong to Stella and Huhudi, Coleridge and Kismet Park, Ganyesa and Morokweng, Pudimoe and Dryharts, Schweizer-Reneke and the farms in between. They belong to readers who want their local paper to be useful before it is popular.

From all of us at The Vryburg Independent Post: thank you for trusting us. We’ll earn it again tomorrow.

Continue supporting “District News That Matters”.

-The VIP Editor in Chief 

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