Mondi Paper Magazine Awards

At the Sandton Hilton tonight (14 May 2003), the winners of the 14th annual Mondi Paper Magazine Awards were announced. The Magazine Awards, a partnership between Mondi Paper and the Magazine Publishers Association of South Africa (MPASA), seek to raise the profile of the industry's most talented individuals, by recognising and rewarding excellence in 15 categories of South African magazine journalism.

"Magazines have a mandate to inform, enlighten, challenge and entertain their readers," says Gus Silber, convenor of the Magazine Awards judging panel. "It's heartening to see proof that so many are meeting that mandate in a way that elevates the standard of written and pictorial journalism. We salute the winners, and hope that many more will be inspired to follow in their footsteps."

Silber was assisted by a panel of prominent journalists and media specialists, consisting of Sue Grant-Marshall, Joe Khumalo, Latiefa Mobara, Anna Boshoff, Denis Beckett, De Waal Venter, Shona Bagley, TJ Lemon and Darrel Bristow-Bovey.

The winner in the Business category is Pieter Schoombee for his two entries "Die toets vir Tigon" in Insig and "Enron: Can it happen here?" in Business 2.0. The finalists are Megan Chronis for "School's in. Lessons from CNA's downfall" in Buy-in, Patricia McCracken for "Dodge the debt sharks" in Bona and Chris Nel for "An ingenious indigenous chicken enterprise" in Farmer's Weekly.

In the Industry category, the winner is Marian Giesen for "Style Pollution" in Architechnology. The finalists are Christian Eedes for "The spirit of Kaizan" in Wine, Case Rijsdijk for "Exploring eternity" in Popular Mechanics and Andrew Stone for "Zimbabwe - an economy destroyed" in SA Mining.

This year's Health and Wellness category winner is Lydia van der Merwe for "Wit, Afrikaans, Getroud - en MIV-positief" in Sarie. The finalists are Jane Badham, Andreas Späth and Sam Wilson for "Is there fish in my tomato?" in Shape, Hilary Bassett for "How healthy are our health services?" in Longevity and Eunice Rider for "The stem cell solution" in Baby & Me.

The winner in the Beauty category is Laura Twiggs for "Botox on the guest list at 30-something parties" in Femina. The finalists are Daniela Massenz for "Looking forward to beauty" in Imagine and "Marine miracles" in Shape, Leigh Toselli for various articles in Longevity and Y and Toni Younghusband for "Breast safari" in Shape.

The At Home category winner is Tina-Marié Malherbe for "Die jaar word ryp." in Visi. The finalists are Stephen Falcke for Style Décor 2002, Jenny Simpson for "Grow/Supergrass" in Elle Decoration and Shelley Street for "Touchy feely" in Elle Decoration.

The winner in the Reviews section is the FHM team for "Reviews" in FHM. The finalists are Susan Joubert for "Writers to write home about" in Baby & Me, Francois Smith for "Die onvolwasse, impotente superhelde" and "Die manne moor. en die vroue rou" in Insig and Ivor Powell for "David Koloane" in Art South Africa.

In Essays and Fiction, the winner is Dana Snyman for various articles in Huisgenoot. Gcina Mhlophe for "Fly, Hat, Fly!" in O - The Oprah Magazine, Nola Muller for "When the Chanting Stopped" in FairLady and Sean O'Toole for "An African Grey" in SL are the finalists in this category.

Foresight category winner is Patricia McCracken for her two entries "Saving our muthi" and "School fees: No more ripoffs" in Bona. The finalists are Johan Gallant for "Africanis Series" in Farmer's Weekly, Itumeleng Mahabane for "Dear Tata President" in Y and Sybrand Mostert for "Innovations Unlimited." in Popular Mechanics.

In the Leisure category, the winner is Heather Dugmore for "Adventures in 'big two town'" in Sawubona. The finalists are Jonathan Ancer for "Mister Floppy" in SL, Sarah Duguid for "The Eagles have landed" in GQ and Jake Rusznyak for "Youth in Asia" in SL.

The Fashion winner is Jackie Burger for various articles in Fairlady. The finalists are Sara Callow for "The Pioneers" in Marie Claire, Neil Doveton for "Romancing The Bride" in Pace and Chris Viljoen for "The Champion" in FHM.

The winning journalist in the Columns category is Sue de Groot for the "Single Serving Column" in Femina. The runner-up is Kgafela oa Magogodi for "The Spoken Word Column" in Y.

The winner in Design and Illustration section is Jaco Janse van Rensburg for "Visi 8 Section Openers" and "Visi 9 Section Openers" in Visi. Kelly Fletcher for "Cause & Effect" in SL and Michael Stallenberg for "Detour" in Design Indaba are the finalists.

Pierre Crocquet clinched first place in the Photography category for his entry "Sackcloth and diamonds" in Sawubona. Second place went to Johan Wilke for "Pa se Kind" in Sarie.

In the category for Reportage, the winner is Darren Taylor for various articles in Farmer's Weekly. The finalists are Paula Slier for "24 hours in a squatter camp" in Marie Claire and Sean O'Toole for "An Ordinary Day" in SL.

The winner in the Features section is Pippa de Bruyn for "Full Circle" in O - The Oprah Magazine. The finalists are Mike Behr for "Reclaiming life" and "A mother's story" in Fairlady, Elsabé Brits, Willemien Brümmer and Petro Roosendaal for "Skaduwêreld" in Insig and Alexander Strachan, Hilton Hamann and Kirby van der Merwe for "Kontak!" in Insig.

The 15 category winners each received a golden Mondi nib trophy, a personal cash prize of R8000 and a framed certificate.