Media Monitoring Africa announce the lsu Elihle 2020 finalists!
On Monday the 31st of August Media Monitoring Africa announced this year’s lsu Elihle finalists. They are from four countries with in the African continent. They are Zimbabwe’s Tatenda Chitagu and Mercy Mubaiwa. South Africa’s Luzuko Sonkapu and Kathryn Clearly. Lesotho’s Matiisetso Mosala and Nigeria’s Kunle Adebajo.

Meet the Finalists:

Luzuko Sonkapu

18-Year-old RX Radio Young Reporter Luzuko Sonkapu was born and raised in Cape Town, New Crossroads. Luzuko lives with a chronic illness, Spinal Muscular Atrophy and is wheelchair bound. He joined RX Radio in 2018 and has already achieved great milestones on his journey. He hosts his own
show called Ace the Rapper’s Space speaking to his love for rap and Hip-Hop music, while also sharing his platform with other young artists.
Luzuko also recently represented RX Radio in the WHO: Reboot Health and Wellbeing Innovative Challenge, which resulted in the team being one of two winners in this Challenge. Together with a team of RX Young Reporters and a content producer, Luzuko brought home the win based on the
station’s Children’s Voices on COVID-19 programme, and RX Radio’s response to the pandemic. Luzuko in his spare time enjoys being with his family and friends. He has a love for Philosophy and enjoys reading research books focusing on his favourite topic, the meaning of life.

Tatenda Chitagu

Tatenda Prosper Chitagu is a multi-media Journalist and fact checker from Zimbabwe with more than ten years’ experience. He corresponds for The Newsday as well as The Washington Post while based in the southern city of Masvingo. He is a holder of a Msc degree in Media and Society Studies,
Chitagu has been a fellow at The Reuter’s Institute for The Study of Journalism (RISJ) at the University of Oxford (2017-2018).He is the current winner of the UNICEF Child journalist of the year in Zimbabwe.

Mercy Mubaiwa

Mercy has been working in the field of communication and film for about 3 years. She identifies herself as a Digital storyteller, Education activist, Women and children’s rights Activist, environmental activist .Mercy holds a Bsc in Media and Society Studies, Certificates in Global Journalism; Safety, Peace and Conflict, Community Engagement, & Documentary Filmmaking and is currently reading for an M.Phil inn Media Studies. She is a member of the Bosch Alumni Network and enjoy Travelling, Photography and Film.

She has developed and cultivated love for communication for development. Mercy has worked as a, Communication for Development Officer, Public Relations officer, Reporter, script writer, social media manager and on various film productions alternating roles. Mercy loves travelling,
networking, reading writing and meeting new people and has grown to be very passionate about Child rights issues and research. Her research interests are Education, Health, Child rights, student movements, gender, women affairs, culture preservation and memory, sustainable development
and climate change. She loves working with people to improve their livelihoods and believes in telling Stories4Change

Kathryn Clearly

Kathryn is a freelance health journalist based in Cape Town, South Africa. She strives to pursue stories that push the boundaries of traditional journalism and reporting, and bring those often silenced and under-represented voices to the fore. She is extremely passionate about the issues of child hunger and malnutrition, and it is her hope that through the Isu Elihle Awards she can explore these issues from multiple angles, as well as through the eyes and voices of children who experience them on a daily basis. She says that children are the future, but more importantly, they are the now, and that needs to be reflected in journalism.” 

Kunle Adebajo

Kunle Adebajo is a trained lawyer, freelance writer, and senior investigative reporter at HumAngle. He is currently a fellow of Dubawa and was a 2019 Africa Check fellow. He is the editor of non-fiction and cultural criticism at Agbowo and editor-in-chief of Punocracy. Kunle is passionate about human rights, educational reform, and political accountability. He has won a number of journalism awards including the 2018 Alfred Opubo Prize for Opinion, 2018 Budeshi Datathon Writers’ Challenge, and 2019 West Africa Medica Excellence Award for Best Telecommunications Report.

Matiisetso Mosala

She is a young enthusiastic Investigative journalist from the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho. Currently she is an Investigative Journalism fellow at MNN Centre for Investigative Journalism based in Maseru, Lesotho. She has five years’ experience in journalism, reporting on topics that include health, business, education and finance and investigations for different media houses. She is passionate about giving voice to the voiceless, bringing about positive impact to lives and holding those in power accountable.