The lessons we learnt from Estelle, the journalist who could

Yesterday, the bottom fell out of my world. It fell out for all of us at Daily Maverick. But perhaps most especially for our Nelson Mandela Bay bureau and for Baywatch.

We lost our friend and colleague, Estelle Ellis – a journalist, a fierce advocate for people who were too often ignored, and one of the most determined people I’ve ever known.

Obituary

Farewell Estelle Ellis, who chased broken lifts, broken hospitals and broken promises

August 7, 2026

Of all the stories we’ve worked on together, this is the one I never wanted to tell.

I wrote a few words about Estelle yesterday – about the journalist South Africa lost, the reporting that mattered, the difference she made. All of it is true.

None of it is the whole story.

Because Baywatch readers didn’t just read Estelle’s name. A lot of you knew her, or knew her work well enough to feel like you knew her.

So today I want to tell you about the Estelle I knew.

The one who’d argue with me – properly argue – because we both cared too much to let anything go. More often than not she’d come back a day later with one more document, one more source, and the infuriating habit of being right.

The one who got herself stuck in a hospital lift with a porter and a body because she didn’t trust anyone’s word on whether those lifts actually worked, and wanted to find out for herself.

The one who called me laughing after a spokesperson called her “annoying”. “I’ve got 10 more questions for him,” she said. “That’ll really annoy him.”

The one who could talk for 20 minutes about her cat Finn – aka WBC, World’s Best Cat, her ginger tyrant – or light up proudly, showing you the latest photos of her niece Leah and nephew Jacques.

She loved loudly.

There was no halfway with Estelle – not in her journalism, her friendships, her family, or the causes she believed in.

She could be exacting. Stubborn. She could drive you slightly mad. But those qualities came from the same place as her brilliance – a deep belief that things mattered, and could be better.

We cannot replace Estelle. There simply will never be another Estelle.

But we can keep asking the questions she would have asked. We can keep telling the stories she fought to tell. We can keep standing alongside the people who trusted her with their hopes, their fears and the truth.

That is the legacy she leaves us. And Estelle, my friend, we will do our best to carry that legacy for you. DM