Mondi honours the shining stars of South African magazine journalism

The Mondi Paper Magazine Awards, sponsored by Mondi Paper in conjunction with the MPASA, are South Africa's most celebrated awards for magazine journalism, photography, design and illustration. The awards acknowledge and reward groundbreaking and provocative work published in South African magazines.

"It is a small miracle whenever a magazine makes it from the first germ of concept into the hands of the reader," said Gus Silber, convener of the judging panel, "and these awards are in their way a tribute to the enterprise, the skill, and the individual and collective creative energy that goes into making that miracle happen."

While 2003 was widely regarded as an "annus horribilis" in the history of South African journalism, Silber argued that it could equally be called "an annus mirabilis - a year of miracles, the greatest perhaps of which is the fact that print media continue to thrive and prosper in an age of increasing competition and declining attention-spans, and that the love, compulsion and obsession at the heart and soul of our profession shows no sign of being extinguished".

Each of the 15 champions, selected from a total of 871 entries, was awarded a cash prize of R10 000, a coveted Mondi Golden Nib, as well as the prestige that goes with being a Mondi winner.

All the winners:

Winning the Business category are Paul Kirk and Martin Welz for "The Frame Affair" in Noseweek. Deon Basson for "Papiergoëlaars van die sakewêreld" in Insig is a finalist.

Taking first prize for the Industry categoryis Elizabeth Shorten for "The engineer in shining armour" in IMIESA. Megan Chronis is a finalist for her entry "Publishing's (Almost) Free Lunch" in The Media.

In the Health and Wellness category, the winning journalist is Suzy Brokensha for "Up in smoke" in Marie Claire. The finalists are Andy Ellis for "Swimming upstream" in Men's Health, Prevashni Ramsamy for "Designer babies" in Longevity and Laura Twiggs for "We're leading our fathers' lives!" in Essentials.

Glynis Horning is the winner in the Beauty category for "Why I love her body" in Marie Claire. The finalists are Marianne Campbell for "Your skin at 20, 30, 40, 50" in Femina, Christine Ferreira for "Mooi soos jy" in Sarie and Leigh Toselli for "Loud, proud and all pumped up" in Y.

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The judges selected Tina-Marié Malherbe as the winner in the At Home category for her entry "Purrsuede" in Visi Colour. The finalists are Sonja Jordt for "Wat 'n vangs!" in Sarie, Annemarie Meintjes for "Skop nes" in Visi and René Slee for "Inheemse skoonhede" in Rooi Rose.

The winner in the Reviews category is Ivor Powell for "Ed Young's Bruce Gordon" in Art South Africa.  This category's finalists are Mandy Allen for "Design News - The A-Z of Car Design" in House and Leisure, Jono Hall for "The English Roses" in SL and Sally Kramer for "Test House Reviews" in Fairlady.

Last year's Essays and Fiction winner Dana Snyman takes prize again for his entry "Op die spoor - Treinreeks" in Huisgenoot. Rupert Haw for "Balls for a rainbow nation" in GQ, Ami Kapilevich for "Roots" in Citylife and Peter van Noord for "Heilige Parys" in Insig are finalists.

The champion in the Foresight category is Itumeleng Mahabane for "On the brink of growing up" in Y. Foresight finalists are Glynis O'Hara for "Twice Tortured" in True Love, March Turnbull for "Bonobo: An ape in decline" in Africa Geographic and Nicolien Zuijdgeest for "Emptying the Ocean" in Africa Geographic.

Andy Ellis was selected by the panel as the winner in the Leisure category for his entry "Braving the Wild" in a Men's Health supplement Far Out. The finalists are Ami Kapilevich for "Oh, Carolina!" in Citylife, Michael Schmidt for "I'll moer you, bru!" in FHM and Kate Wilson for "Are you lonesome tonight?" in Marie Claire.

Chris Viljoen's "Supa Cool" entry published in FHM was selected as the prize-winning entry in the Fashion category. Robert Bell for "Downtown girl" in Style, Jackie Burger for "Hidden treasures" and "Suit yourself" in Fairlady and Kassie Naidoo for "Meet the parents" in Y are the finalists.

The Columns category winner is André Le Roux for "Op die vrou af" columns in Sarie. Stephen Francis for "Humour" columns in Discovery, Bona's Force Khashane for "Talking muthi with Force" columns and Y's Kgafela oa Mogagodi for "The Spoken Word" columns are the finalists.

The winner in the Design and Illustration category is a team comprising Sophie Perryer, Abbey Volks and Brendon Bell-Roberts for the "Kendell Geers" cover of Art South Africa. The finalists are Jason Bronkhorst for "Revolution" in SL, Robert Cilliers for "The Player" in GQ and Mark Serra for "Cate, catch her if you can" in Femina.

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In the Photography category, the judging panel selected Sean Laurenz as the winner for "Why I love her body" in Marie Claire, an article written by Glynis Horning, the winner in the Beauty category.  Finalists in this category are Phyllis Green for "Vrou met uil" in Sarie, Patrick Ryan for "Skin" in SL and Caroline Suzman for "Alexandra: the dark city revealed" in Sawubona.

The Reportage winner is Jo-Ann Bekker for "Why I'm suing my married ex-lover for breach of promise" in Femina. Hannelie Booyens for the "Ginn Fourie-reeks" in Huisgenoot, Margie Orford for "For Sale: Human Trafficking" in Marie Claire and Karina Turok for "Mind the gap" in Marie Claire are the finalists.

The Features category winner is Kirby van der Merwe for "Terug na Brandfort" in Insig. The finalists are Mike Behr for "Ghetto defendant" in SA Sports Illustrated, Stacy Hardy for "Last Rites" in SL and Darren Taylor for "War brews on the Battlefields Route" in Farmer's Weekly.

In the judging, Gus Silber was assisted by fashion consultant Dion Chang, Madam & Eve co-creator Rico Schacherl, journalist and critic Darryl Accone, Institute for the Advancement of Journalism executive director Jacob Ntshangase, business journalist and media trainer Benedicta Dube, Mail & Guardian editor Ferial Haffajee, critic and author De Waal Venter, and multiple Mondi-winners Sue Grant-Marshall and Joe Khumalo.