Sowetan has a new deputy editor. She is Mapula Nkosi, 41, the first-ever woman to hold the position on the newspaper.

Nkosi began her journalism career when South Africa's democracy was born in 1994.

An Attridgeville, Pretoria, lass she says she is excited about the position that will reconnect and make her speak to readers with whom she once had a relationship.

"I am fortunate to have talked to the same readers since I started my career. I will continue to excite, inform and set agendas that black people as a society need to interrogate," she said yesterday.

She also admires the black brands that have remained with their readers from the beginning.

Nkosi's career began at the Weekly Mail, now Mail & Guardian, cadet programme in 1994. On her way to the top, she worked at City Press, Ebony and True Love. Her mentors include poet Don Mattera and retired editor Len Kalane.

In 1996 she ventured into public relations and marketing.

She later studied radio in Australia, but her calling as a writer was much stronger.

"I was more intrigued by words than by sound," Nkosi said.