The South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) mourns the passing of veteran journalist, Ben Said who drowned on Monday at a beach in Mozambique, where he was holidaying with his wife and two daughters. According to eNCA he drowned in a diving accident on Monday afternoon.

Said was eNCA’s director of news and had just recently returned to South Africa after working at television channel – TRT World in Turkey. He joined eNCA as a producer in 2000 before rising through the ranks to become senior reporter and eventually Group News Editor.  He left the news station in 2015 to take up a senior management position at TRT in Turkey. He had just re-joined the senior management team at eNCA.

eNCA’s Editor-at-Large, Jeremy Maggs has described Said as “one of the country’s best television journalists” saying his loss to the station was immense.

“Having just re-joined the station, he was already making his presence felt across all aspects of the business. We are all in deep shock,” said Maggs.

SANEF is deeply saddened by this loss to the media industry and we send our deepest condolences to his wife Nicky and his daughters Lily and Bella as well as his family, friends and colleagues across the media industry.
May his soul rest in peace.