Media Monitoring Africa announced the 2018 lsu Elihle Awards winner on SABC news on Sunday 16 February 2019.“Isu Elihle is an isiZulu phrase that means a “Great Idea” when translated to English. The lsu Elihle Awards where launched in November 2015 and has been running for three years. lts aim is to encourage fresh reporting, innovative approaches and insightful investigations that seek to give children a voice and elevate the status of the child all over Africa. In the past two years the awards were open only for journalists in Eastern and Southern Africa but in 2018 journalists from all over Africa where included.This year’s top three winners are from the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) in South Africa and Mallick Mnela from Malawi took the 4th prize.The winner of this year’s organisation’s lsu Elihle Awards is Jarmaine Kringe for her in-depth coverage of the issue of scholar transport. She explores the dangers that children face every day when being transported by vehicles that are not road-worthy and are driven by negligent drivers. Children are also given a voice to reveal how this affects them through her three-part radio series which was broadcast on SAFM. Kringe receives a cash prize of ZAR25, 000 after being ranked the overall winner by a panel of judges including child monitors and media practitioners.The judges commended her reporting by saying, ”you always stayed true to the voices, experiences and wisdom of children and this is why as listeners we were frequently moved to tears”. Listen to the story “Surviving school Transport.The second prize of ZAR15,000 goes to Krivani Pillay for a radio series on “How some South African Children under five struggle to access adequate nutrition” which was also broadcast on SAFM. He deeply looks at the access to child nutrition and basic healthcare services in the country’s different provinces how this leads to the high rate of child mortality. Listen to the story “The Hunger Games – giving South Africa’s Children the right life”. The 3rd prize of the same amount (ZAR15,000) goes to Edwin Naidu who is the winner of the Mandy Roussow award on his three part article highlighting the issue of malnutrition and its impact on children in South Africa. The articles were published by the Sunday independent newspaper. Read the stories:
“Children suffer in twilight zone”
“Crisis in human development”
“Starved of food and education”
“SA 4th on Child-friendly Index”The final prize goes to Mallick Mnela from Malawi’s Zodiac Radio broadcasting cooperation who looks at the issue of textbook deficiency at schools in Malawi. He reveals how officials should be held accountable for the corruption at schools which sees free textbooks being sold in the black market. This unlawful act causes children to struggle as they are forced to learn with inadequate study material. His story was broadcast on Zodiac Radio Broadcasting cooperation. Listen to the story “Abuse of resources worsens primary education woes in Malawi”. The application date for this year’s awards is yet to be announced, we call upon journalists from all over Africa to enter this year’s competition.
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