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- A new position in the News24 newsroom will focus on sustainability issues.
- Journalist Lameez Omarjee will write about the energy, agriculture and construction sectors.
- News24 wants to equip readers to better understand the impacts of climate change.
News24 has appointed Lameez Omarjee as a specialist journalist, focusing on sustainability.
Previously a parliamentary and economy journalist for Fin24, Omarjee has written extensively about state-owned enterprises such as Eskom and recently, the controversy around Shell's planned seismic survey off the Wild Coast.
The addition is in line with a growing emphasis on environmental issues in newsrooms globally, as the world grapples with the impacts of climate change.
Omarjee will focus her efforts on the local energy, agriculture and construction sectors – all key industries to the South African economy.
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"It's going to sound like a cliché, but the world revolves around money. Where the money goes, everything else follows," Omarjee says. "In the same way finance has created this fossil fuel-backed industry, it also has the power to create industries that are low carbon intensive. You can already see some banks withdrawing from fossil fuel industries and the money flowing to renewable energy."
Fin24 editor Helena Wasserman says Omarjee's appointment will focus the team's efforts to inform readers about how changes in the environment will affect them.
"No amount of wishful thinking will make climate change go away. Fact is, it is already starting to shape our lives," she says. "Our readers must be equipped with science-based reporting to better understand changes in their environment and, importantly, how the worst can be averted.
"While we do cover climate change in various beats as part of our finance news coverage, having a dedicated journalist of Lameez's calibre will sharpen our focus and equip readers with more facts and guidance."
Wasserman says a key part of Fin24's coverage focuses on the opportunity for change brought by the crisis.
Sustainable
"Energy is a key focus area for us, and given that South Africa has among the most ideal conditions for sustainable energy, we hope to cover some of the most exciting new sustainability projects in the country."
Omarjee has a BCom Honours in marketing and a BA Honours in journalism and media studies, both from Wits University, and recently completed a post-graduate diploma in sustainable development at Stellenbosch University.
She grew up in the mining town of Rustenburg in the North West, where she was exposed to the consequences of the mining industry on the environment from an early age.
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Excited about the opportunity to shed more light on sustainability issues, Omarjee believes that sustainability will permeate all beats in the newsroom in the future as it affects all sectors of society.
She said:
"The climate crisis is a problem that is so far reaching and is embedded in the systems that make our world. You can see it in the finance world. It also filters into the political realm with legislation. People shouldn't think of it as a limited thing on its own. My hope is that every journalist would be able to write about it. It will become general news."
Asked about where her passion for the environment comes from, Omarjee pins it down to stewardship: "For me this journey is about how I can be a good steward of the things I've been given. As an inhabitant of this earth, we have to take care of it, just like you'd take care of anything that belongs to you. I care because it's part of my humanity."
