Shoprite Checkers/SABC 2 Women of the Year finalists announced

The finalists that from the Creative Industries are:
-- Business Entrepreneurs Category: Nunu Ntshingila, chairperson of Ogilvy Johannesburg; and Bev Moodley-Pryde, in her capacity as Investment, Marketing and Communications Manager of the Gauteng Economic Development Agency (GEDA).
-- Community Category: Beka Ntsanwisi, a presenter with community-based radio station Munghana Lonene FM in Limpopo.
-- Media & Communications Category: Ferial Haffajee, editor of the Mail & Guardian newspaper; Maserame Mouyeme, the Group Managing Director of FCB South Africa; Pelonomi Makau, who took on the enormous task of saving a community radio station in the rural area of Taung in the North West.

The Shoprite Checkers / SABC 2 Women of the Year Award, a major initiative for National Women's Day, identifies and pays tribute to the most exceptional and achieving women in the country, whose unswerving commitment and dedication have made a tangible difference to their communities and society as a whole.

This year the Award has grown to include a ninth category while for the first time in its history the Award will not announce an overall winner. The premier accolade for achievement by women will honour nine winners in nine categories. These outstanding women will share the Shoprite Checkers / SABC2 Women of the Year Award.
The winners of the Award will be announced during a gala event at the Cape Town International Convention Centre and broadcast on National Women's Day, Monday 9 August 2004 at 21h00 on SABC 2, and re-broadcast on Tuesday 10 August on SABC 2 at 12h00.

Inserts of the following finalists in each of the nine categories can be seen on SABC 2 from Thursday 15 until Thursday 29 July 2004 after the 19h00 Afrikaans and 20h30 Sesotho news broadcasts:

ARTS & CULTURE

1. Gauteng-based Joyce Levinsohn, a pioneer of children's theatre in South Africa, established Children's Theatre Productions in 1976 and has since been relentless in her quest to expose children of every race to the magic of interactive, high quality theatre.

2. Gauteng-based Masingita Masunga has given physically disabled people throughout South Africa an opportunity to make valuable contributions to society through projects created by her Tinyungubyiseni Talent Promotions company.

3. Promoting music as a powerful force for healing and change, Gauteng-based Susan Harrop-Allin's commitment and belief in the role of arts and culture in transformation and development led to the founding in 2000 of EYETHU Soweto Music Project, which teaches young musicians and integrates them into different communities as well as youth orchestras.

BUSINESS ENTREPRENEURS

1. Sabina Khoza, one of South Africa's top poultry farmers, is taking her knowledge to the community via the Fair Deal Education and Production Training Centre, which she has initiated on her Fair Deal Poultry Farm at Zuurbekom near Soweto. The first group of trainees completed their course in November 2003, and close on 100 farmers, the majority of whom are women, have graduated from the centre prior to starting their own small businesses.

2. Nunu Ntshingila, widely regarded as a guiding light for those entering the advertising industry, is also one of the highest ranking black females in advertising and chairperson of one of the top three creative agencies in the country, chairperson of the Association for Communication and Advertising (ACA), and a board member of the Media Development and Diversity Agency.

3. Bev Moodley-Pryde, in her capacity as Investment, Marketing and Communications Manager of the Gauteng Economic Development Agency (GEDA) and together with her team, facilitated R1.5 billion of new investments in the province during 2003, leading to the creation of more than 2 500 sustainable jobs. Moodley-Pryde is regarded as one of the most powerful marketing agents in South Africa and she plays a significant role in the growth and upliftment of the province by putting GEDA on the international map and reaffirming its significance to local and foreign investors.

COMMUNITY

1. Nomthunzi Joyce Mali is a faith healer by calling, and has embarked upon her own extraordinary quest to reach out to people. A true community builder who has assisted with a number of projects in the impoverished Zigodlo Village near Debe Nek in the Eastern Cape, she has given hope to orphans and street children, promoted spiritual healing and focused on the reduction of crime through a number of youth development projects.

2. Mary Lwate, founder of the Good Hope Community Organisation in Lebanon near Winterveld in the North West, is an inspiring role model and active leader who, with only a Grade Four education, has developed a number of beneficial community projects in one of the country's most impoverished areas.

3. Maria Mello, founder of the Makotse Women's Club (MWC), a women's organisation operating from Makotse Village in the Capricorn district in Limpopo, has overcome incredible odds to focus on the upliftment of the standard of living of rural communities in her area. Makotse Village and its surrounding areas are characterised by a high poverty rate, high unemployment, illiteracy, teenage pregnancy, and low life expectancy.

4. Beka Ntsanwisi, a presenter with community-based radio station Munghana Lonene FM in Limpopo, is a selfless, committed and dedicated member of the community, who uses her voice on the airwaves to assist disadvantaged residents in the area. Her gospel radio programme has become a vehicle to encourage people to help one another, and

EDUCATION

1. Professor Letticia Moja, the first black woman to head a South African medical faculty, is a brilliant academic and leader who firmly believes in the great need for training of black doctors. Professor Moja stepped into her new role as Dean of the Faculty of Health Science at the University of the Free State in January 2004, after fulfilling the role of Vice-Dean of the faculty from 2002.

2. Kelebogile Dilotsotlhe, one of the few women worldwide to head up a science centre, is the CEO of Gauteng's new Sci-Bono Discovery Centre, which aims to make science more accessible to young people.

3. Nomxolisi Matyana has dedicated her career to saving and promoting correct usage of one of the country's most valued commodities, that of water through educating communities about integrated water resource management, ie water use efficiency, protection of water resources, awareness of invasive alien species and health and hygiene education.
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HEALTH

1. Joey le Roux, the first woman to be appointed twice in the top management role of Pretoria hospitals, turned a private hospital into a facility that educates and empowers the local community, while saving the jobs of those working at the hospital. Faced with having to close the hospital and retrench its staff, as Group HR Manager of Pretoria Gynaecological Hospital Le Roux took up the challenge of making the hospital more relevant to the community.

2. Dr Shereen Usdin, a medical doctor and public health specialist, is the co-founder of Soul City, a locally and internationally acclaimed multi-media health initiative that uses popular media to promote health and development. Soul City reaches over 82% of the South African population and educates the public about national health and development priorities such as HIV and Aids, tuberculosis, maternal and child health, substance abuse and gender violence.

3. Taking community nursing to its limit Ruth Maoela, HIV/Aids co-ordinator with the Bethesda Aids Action team, takes her nursing skills and home-based care initiatives to rural areas in the Jozini area of KwaZulu-Natal. Since 1999 she has travelled hundreds of kilometres on a daily basis to educate and train home-based caregivers in a special 10-day course designed for women with only primary school education.
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MEDIA & COMMUNICATIONS

1. Ferial Haffajee became the first woman editor of a major South African newspaper when, aged only 36, she took over the editorship of Johannesburg-based Mail & Guardian in January 2004. An advocate of quiet and calm leadership, Ferial now reports a two-thirds female contingency in the M&G newsroom and aims to nurture more investigate journalism in the M&G on delicate gender issues, such as the rate of rape and sexual violence in South Africa.

2. Pelonomi Makau took on the enormous task of saving a community radio station in the rural area of Taung in the North West, and has since seen its transmission area increase from a 30 km to an 80km radius that incorporates the Taung, Jan Kempdorp, Hartswater, Reivilo, Vryburg, Warrenton and Christiana areas. Since taking up the reins at Vaaltar FM in 2002 she has combated internal resistance within the station against a woman in the role of station manager, and has successfully implemented new systems within the station, including employment contracts and incentive schemes, broadcast policies and presenter training.

3. Maserame Mouyeme is the Group Managing Director of FCB South Africa, the largest advertising and communications companies in the country. Her excellent leadership skills and business acumen have brought her huge respect in the industry and she has been very active in the transformation and educational portfolios of the Association for Communication & Advertising (ACA) and the AAA School of Advertising ensuring access, funding and excellent training for the previously disadvantaged.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

1. Professor Tebello Nyokong is researching a ground-breaking new cancer diagnosis and treatment, alternative to chemotherapy, using a red laser light and the same dye used in blue denims, harmless by itself and activated with exposure to light. She is currently collaborating with Russian researchers to acquire a licence to commence clinical trials in South Africa for the Photodynamic Therapy (PDT), which has been approved in some countries abroad and does not destroy hair or healthy cells and does not make the person sick. The project will be a first for South Africa and the Continent.

2. Eighteen-year old Claire Reid is already a local and international award winner for her "Water Wise Reel Gardening" system that cuts down water usage for growing vegetables by a phenomenal 80%. Claire's invention offers a breakthrough for water conservation in rural areas in the developing world. Over 70% of the world's water is used in agriculture and her simple and effective seed-planting system, where seeds are encapsulated inside newspaper strips, cuts down water usage by reducing water leakage into the soil. The newspaper strips keep seeds moist so that they germinate without wasting water and without being eaten by birds, and at the right depth for proper growth. Claire's first award came in 2002 when she was still a grade 10 student at Gauteng's St Teresa's Mercy School.

3. Dr Sharon Biermann is a geographer whose research into sustainable urban development has brought local and international recognition, and challenges the assumption that the compact city is always the most cost-effective and sustainable. She received the CSIR 2003 Top Achievers Award for her contribution to location and investment decisions for low-cost residential developments that impact fundamentally on the quality of life of South Africa's urban population, where more than 40% of households are woman-headed.

4. Professor Valerie Corfield has developed The DNA Detective and Design a Food initiatives, introducing the world of science via workshops and kits to educators and learners in disadvantaged communities, where the need for science advancement is the greatest.

SOCIAL SERVICES

1. Cookie Edwards pioneered and co-ordinates the KwaZulu-Natal Network of Violence against Women, which played a major role in the New Domestic Violence Act of 99, the setting up of the Durban Family Court and numerous public safety outreach programmes aimed at improving the fate of abused women in South Africa.

2. Valentia Kadalie is a social welfare entrepreneur for the aged who has dedicated the past 20 years to making geriatric care an inspiring and fulfilling career. Managing care for the elderly on a regional and national basis, she initiated the Olympiatrics, an annual sports day for seniors, which led to a national physical activity programme for seniors run by the Department of Sport & Recreation.

3. Sister Priscilla Dlamini, a Catholic nun since the age of fifteen, with her own two hands and a R10 000 grant converted old stables into a haven for the destitute hordes of rejected HIV patients dying as beggars in the vast sugar plantations constituting the KwaZulu-Natal hills. She has since received international recognition for her Holy Cross Aids Hospice in eMoyeni near Gingindlovu, Eshowe.

SPORT

1. Modi Marishane-Nyaka, newly elected President of the South African Handball Federation and former Vice-President of the now defunct South African Netball Association, is using her own experience of this once-forgotten sport in South Africa to revive it to one of the top sporting codes amongst the youth. Currently providing national guidance to project implementers in rural and previously disadvantaged for the United Nations Office on Drug Control (UNODC), she firmly believes in the uplifting role played by sport in the development of South Africa's youth.

2. Lindsey Carlisle, 149-times captain of the internationally competitive SA Women's hockey team, has represented her country at the Olympics and now shares her love of the sport as a coach and participant of the Southern Gauteng Hockey Association's "Schools of Excellence" programme, which aims to develop talented young players.

3. Mandy Adamson has represented SA golf as a professional woman player on numerous occasions. It is this Sandtonite's passion to grow women's golf in South Africa and to create awareness of the potential career opportunities for lady golfers.