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After leaving the Rand Daily Mail, he joined Sunday Times. Mr Bikitsha was part of a generation of journalists, mostly mission schooleducated,
hard-nosed and hard-drinking, whose love of the English language saw them forsake the teaching careers for which they
had been trained, for journalism, that was a bridge between the Drum generation and later generations.
Mr Bikitsha died at the Tshepo Themba Clinic in Dobsonville, Soweto on 6 January 2007 at the age of 77.
Mr Basil “Doc” Bikitsha is honoured with the Order of Ikhamanga in Silver for being one of the finest journalists of his time, for his
outstanding contribution to the profession of journalism and for being an important social commentator in his chosen beat. He was
true to his calling up to his last days.
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