Rob Rose (South African journalist)

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Rob Rose
Alma mater University of the Witwatersrand
Occupation Investigative journalist
Years active2000–present
Awards

Rob Rose is a South African business journalist who was editor of the Financial Mail between 2016 and 2024. A two-time winner of the Taco Kuiper Award for Investigative Journalism for his investigative reporting on corruption, he is currently a writer at Currency.

Contents

Career in journalism

Rose studied at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he completed a BA in 1995 and an LLB in 2000. [1] While a law student, he worked briefly at Engineering News, and, after graduating, he decided to pursue a career in journalism only a few weeks into his articles. [1] [2] Beginning at I-Net Bridge , he went on to work as a business journalist at Business Day from 2002 to 2007, when he joined the Financial Mail as a banking writer. [3] [4]

Subsequently Rose joined the investigative reporting team at the Sunday Times , where he, Stephan Hofstatter, and Mzilikazi wa Afrika co-wrote a series of award-winning articles between 2011 and 2013. [5] Hofstatter and wa Afrika's team was later criticized for reporting fake news, including in one exposé which Rose had co-written about extrajudicial police killings by the so-called Cato Manor "death squad." [6] [7] The Taco Kuiper Award for Investigative Journalism panel rescinded the runner-up award that the death squad story had received, describing the reporting as "shoddy and amateurish," [8] and the Sunday Times voluntarily returned the story's other awards, including several Sikuvile (Mondi Shanduka) Journalism Awards. [9] [10]

After a stint as editor of the Sunday Times 's Business Times from 2013, [4] Rose returned to the Financial Mail in 2015. He was deputy editor of the Financial Mail under editor Tim Cohen, and he replaced Cohen as editor in 2016. [11] He led the magazine for eight years before resigning at the end of January 2024. [12] [13] Thereafter he joined Currency, a new financial news publication that launched in September 2024. [14] [15] He is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. [16]

Books

Rose's first book, The Grand Scam: How Barry Tannenbaum Conned South Africa's Business Elite, was published in 2014 by Zebra Press and investigated Barry Tannenbaum's corporate fraud, a story which Rose had broken at the Financial Mail in June 2009. [17] [18]

His second book, Steinheist: Markus Jooste, Steinhoff and SA's Biggest Corporate Fraud, covered Markus Jooste and the Steinhoff scandal. [19] Published in 2018 by NB Publishers, it won the Recht Malan Prize at the 2019 Media24 Books Literary Awards. [20] It was adapted into a docuseries of the same name, featuring interviews with Rose, which premiered on Showmax in 2022. [21]

Other awards

Rose received the 2009 Taco Kuiper Award for his reporting on the Tannenbaum fraud, [22] and he, Hofstatter, and wa Afrika shared the 2011 Taco Kuiper Award for their Sunday Times reporting on corruption by Mac Maharaj's associates. [23]

At the Sanlam Financial Journalism Awards, Rose was named Financial Journalist of the Year four times, in 2010, [24] 2016, [25] [26] 2019, [27] and 2023. [28]

He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 2011. [29]

References

  1. 1 2 Minors, Deborah (21 May 2012). "Rose tackles thorny issue of corruption". Wits University. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  2. "20 Questions with… Rob Rose". The Media Online. 26 March 2014. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  3. Rose, Rob (1 February 2024). "Editor's Note: Press still a beacon, but a fragile one, in South Africa". Financial Mail. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  4. 1 2 "All the media moves". The Media Online. 2 May 2013. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  5. "All the media moves". The Media Online. 2 May 2013. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  6. Siqoko, Bongani (14 October 2018). "We got it wrong, and for that we apologise". Sunday Times. Archived from the original on 17 February 2025. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  7. Pauw, Jacques (16 October 2018). "Exposing the puppet masters behind the Sunday Times scandal". News24. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  8. "Sunday Times stripped of journalism award for Cato Manor 'death squad' reporting". The Mail & Guardian. 21 March 2019. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  9. "Award organisers caught by surprise as Sunday Times returns prizes for false reports". News24. 15 October 2018. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  10. "Sunday Times journalists scoop top awards". Sunday Times. 2 September 2012. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  11. "Times Media appoints three new editors". Sunday Times. 1 February 2016. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  12. "Financial Mail editor Rob Rose resigns". Business Day. 28 January 2024. Archived from the original on 28 January 2024. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  13. "Financial Mail editor Rob Rose resigns". Sunday Times. 28 January 2024. Archived from the original on 29 January 2024. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  14. "Rob Rose and Giulietta Talevi's new financial publication unveiled". Daily Investor. 9 July 2024. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  15. Jordaan, Lucinda (17 December 2024). "Banking on great journalism". The Media Online. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  16. "Rob Rose". ICIJ. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  17. Charalambous, Styli (6 January 2014). "Book review: The Grand Scam by Rob Rose – how the Tannenbaums and Madoffs get away with it". Daily Maverick. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  18. "Book review – Rose among the thorns". News24. 8 June 2014. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  19. "Rob Rose's Steinheist exposes the greed, plunder and betrayal behind the Steinhoff crash". Sunday Times. 13 January 2019. Archived from the original on 8 April 2025. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  20. "Winners of 2019 Media24 Books Literary Prizes announced". Sunday Times. 13 June 2019. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  21. Shapiro, Tevya Turok (23 September 2022). "Steinheist — unpacking the biggest corporate scam in SA history". Daily Maverick. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  22. "Fraudster articles win 2009 Taco Kuiper Award for Investigative Journalism". Bizcommunity. 29 March 2010. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  23. "Sunday Times team wins journalism award". Sunday Times. 1 April 2012. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  24. "Sanlam Financial Journo awards winners". Bizcommunity. 2 June 2010. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  25. "Rob Rose is Sanlam Financial Journalist of the Year". Bizcommunity. 13 June 2016. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  26. "Rob Rose Sanlam Financial Journalist of 2015". Sanlam. 10 June 2016. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  27. "Financial Mail editor wins big at Sanlam financial journalist awards". Sunday Times. 26 June 2019. Archived from the original on 18 October 2020. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  28. "Rob Rose wins 2023 Sanlam Group Financial Journalist of the Year award". Santam. 29 July 2024. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  29. "Nieman Foundation announces Nieman Fellows in Class of 2011". Nieman Foundation. 26 May 2010. Retrieved 29 April 2025.