By Staff Reporter
Harare, (New Ziana) — New Ziana reporter Thabisani Dube has been named one of three 2026 Covering Climate Now (CCNow) Emerging Journalists of the Year, earning international recognition for her reporting on how climate change is reshaping rural communities in Zimbabwe.
Dube shares the award with Daniel Kotecký of the Czech Republic’s Deník Referendum and Katie Myers of Grist and Blue Ridge Public Radio in the United States.
The sixth annual CCNow Journalism Awards attracted more than 1,200 entries from journalists in dozens of countries. A panel of 120 journalists from more than 30 countries and territories selected winners across 14 subject categories, as well as three Emerging Journalists of the Year.
The award recognises early-career journalists with five or fewer years of professional experience whose climate reporting shows exceptional promise and breaks new ground in telling the climate story.
Dube-a Roman Catholic Sister- began her journalism career in 2023 and has focused much of her reporting on the effects of changing weather patterns on rural Zimbabweans. Her work has examined rainfall variability, food security, land inequality, water scarcity and renewable energy.
CCNow judges specifically cited her stories “Where the Rains Once Sang,” “We Till the Land, But Do Not Own It,” “Solar Energy Transforming Lives” and“Wells of Hope.” They described her work as “consistently strong, audience-focused climate journalism” and praised her efforts to bring attention to communities and climate issues often overlooked by the media.
The recognition comes as climate pressures increasingly affect Zimbabwean livelihoods. The World Bank says droughts occurred in one in four growing seasons between 1980 and 2011, compared with one in 10 between 1902 and 1979. Agriculture, which remains heavily dependent on rainfall, is particularly exposed to climate shocks.
Zimbabwe’s 2023-24 El Niño-induced drought sharply reduced agricultural production, while the country experienced widespread food and water insecurity. The 2025 agricultural season brought a strong rebound, but the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations continues to highlight the importance of rainfall timing and distribution, particularly in the country’s drier southern and western regions.
New Ziana Features and Supplements Editor Johnson Siamachira, who has mentored Dube since March 2023, said the award demonstrated the value of nurturing young journalists to cover complex development and climate issues.
“I have had the privilege of mentoring Thabisani since March 2023, and this award is a deeply gratifying milestone,” Siamachira said. “From the beginning, I saw in her a strong curiosity, a willingness to learn and, importantly, an ability to listen to communities whose experiences are often missing from climate and development reporting.”
Siamachira, a veteran journalist with 39 years of experience, said Dube’s achievement showed how rigorous reporting rooted in local communities could reach international audiences.
“Thabisani’s success belongs first and foremost to her. Mentorship can provide guidance, but the journalist must do the hard work of reporting, questioning, learning and telling stories that matter,” he said.
CCNow, a global journalism collaboration co-founded in 2019 by Columbia Journalism Review and The Nation in association with The Guardian and WNYC, supports and trains newsrooms to strengthen climate reporting. It has more than 500 media partners in more than 60 countries.
