Sahm Venter

Professional memberships

Previously a member of:
South African Society of Journalists
Association of Democratic Journalists
South African National Editors’ Forum
South African Freelancers’ Association

Qualifications

BA (Sociology & Southern African Economic History), 1986
MA (with distinction) Journalism & Media Studies, 2005

Training and professional development

1981–1983 South African Associated Newspapers Cadet Journalism course
1992 Scriptwriting for Film and Television

Languages

Basic French, isiZulu, isiXhosa, and Afrikaans

Experience

Full-time journalist from 1981 to 1985. Reporting, writing and sub-editing for South African newspapers.

From 1988 to 2002 reporting and writing for the international media, including 14 years with The Associated Press.

Freelance editing and proofreading 1985 to 1986 and from 2002 to 2006 for the Cape Times, ebooks&writers.com, Jacana publishers and The Associated Press.

Freelance writing for Tribute Magazine, the Belfast Telegraph, Scotland on Sunday and The Age. From 2006 to 2019 research, writing and editing for the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Media

Books, press releases, website material, articles, exhibitions, speeches, documentaries.

Skills and services offered

Editing, proofreading, copy-editing, rewriting.

Subject areas

Non-fiction, biography, autobiography, memoir, corporate journalism.

Specialisms

Non-fiction, corporate journalism.

Clients include

Blackwell & Ruth, EveryOnes World, Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Examples of work undertaken

Editor – Prison Letters (Liveright, a division of W.W. Norton & Company, New York and London, 2019).

Editor – The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela (Liveright, a division of W.W. Norton & Company, New York and London, 2018).

Co-editor (with Vimla Naidoo) – I Remember Nelson Mandela (Jacana, Johannesburg, 2018).

Co-author (with Ahmed Kathrada) – Conversations with a Gentle Soul (Pan Macmillan, Johannesburg, 2017).

Co-editor (with Zamaswazi Dlamini-Mandela) – 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69, Picador Africa, Johannesburg, 2012).

Co-editor (with Sello Hatang) – Notes to the Future (Atria Books, New York, 2012).

Co-editor (with Sello Hatang) – Nelson Mandela By Himself: The Authorised Book of Quotations (Pan Macmillan, Johannesburg 2011).

Author – Our National Days (boxed set of seven educational books), (Jacana, Johannesburg, 2005–2008).

Editor – A Free Mind: Ahmed Kathrada’s Notebook from Robben Island (Jacana, Johannesburg, 2005).

Co-editor (with Claude Colart) – Something to Write Home About: Reflections from the Heart of History (Jacana, Johannesburg, 2004).

Additional information