The Media Online’s weekly column delivering news of award wins, entries, competitions and winners in the media industry.
Creativity rules at Pendoring Awards
Big wins framed by thrilling entertainment, vibrant music and a whole lot of laughs marked the 24th annual Pendoring Indigenous Advertising Awards at the UJ Arts Centre in Johannesburg last Thursday night. Blasts of creative energy infused by diversity, culinary delights served up by Tannie Poppie van As and Mpho Dean from an open fire and the brassy beats of Bambanani Brass Band and Bombshelter Beast, and the cheeky, multilingual quips from hosts Schalk Bezuidenhout and seasoned TV and radio presenter Hulisani Ravele.
TBWA/Hunt Lascaris proved the big winners of the night, walking away with the Prestigious Umpetha Award for their hilarious The Real Cost of Being Zulu radio campaign for City Lodge Hotels. North-West University flexed their creative muscle once again this year, emerging as the overall student winner for Mengelmoes.

The Awards saw a total of 21 gold statues, 23 silvers and 31 craft certificates handed out on the night. Apart from the two overall awards, ten of these are single-entry golds, three are campaign craft gold, four are campaign gold and the remaining four, craft gold.
The creative work on display at this year’s awards bodes well for our creative industry. The standards were high and proved beyond a doubt that South Africa can create locally relevant work that is still globally competitive.
See the full list of Pendoring 2019 winners here.
Cape winners announced in Vodacom Journalist of the Year Awards
The Western Cape winners of the annual, coveted Vodacom Journalist of the Year Awards 2019 (VJOTY) have been announced.

Themed ‘Connect the Dots’ in tribute to journalism that has reflected on issues that expose flaws in and supports our country’s democracy, the 2019 awards drew more than 1 000 entries countrywide, across the 12 categories.
While there was no winner in the Data Journalism category, the Cape Town Winners, by category, are:
- Investigative – Raymond Joseph and Anton van Zyl for their series Gaming the Lottery, which appeared in several publications.
- Opinion – Willemien Brummer of Netwerk24 for her columns on Alzheimer’s and spanking children.
- Lifestyle/Feature – Tammy Petersen of News24 Online for her seven-part series on the gang-torn community of Hanover Park.
- Photography – Phandulwazi Jikelo f or his series of pictures called ‘Shunned for having albinism’.
- Sport – Sport 24’s Lloyd Burnard for shining a spotlight on the role of Herschel’s 64-year-old primary school teacher and coach, Christo Jephtas. His copy was supplemented by an excellent video shot and edited by Aljoscha Kohlstock.
- Financial/Economics – Marianne Merten of the Daily Maverick for a body of work that highlighted the central risk to business and consumers posed by Eskom’s capture.
- Politics – Hazel Friedman and Ismail Ridwaan for Bitter Harvest and The Lie of the Land for SABC’s Special Assignment and Hazel Friedman for her articles in the Mail & Guardian, Farm Flipping, The Land of Empty Promises and Corruption Plagues Land Reform.
- CSI/Sustainability – Nadine Theron and Asanda Javu for eNCA for Sustainability, which depicts how, in a neglected gang-ridden area where bullets frequently fly, a community farm on the grounds of an Ocean View school serves as a physical and psychological refuge.
- Live reporting/breaking news – Aron Hyman of the Sunday Times and TimesLive for an excellent body of work, which included astonishing background on the murder of Cape Town lawyer, Pete Mihalik, the gang-related shooting of a Gift of the Givers’ volunteer, Ameerodien Noordien, and an in-depth analysis of the reasons why Cape Town is regarded as the world’s most dangerous city. Philani Nombembe contributed to the first of these stories.
- Multi-platform – Sune Payne and Leila Dougan of Daily Maverick for eloquently reporting the plight of farm-dwellers in Bitter Harvest.
- Young Journalist of the Year Award – This award recognises the efforts of the rising stars in newsrooms across the regions. Regional nominees will automatically become finalists for the national Young Journalist award and the career-enhancing prize. The Western Cape nominee is Luke Folb of the Weekend Argus.
Moffie up for 3 BIFAS – and more
Moffie, the fourth film by South African director Oliver Hermanus, has scored three nominations at the 2019 British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) for Best Director, Best Breakthrough Producer (Jack Sidey) and Best Cinematographer (Jamie D Ramsay).
The coming of age movie is only the fourth SA film to receive an official invitation to the Venice Film Festival, where it had its world premiere in September. This was followed by a sold out screenings at the London Film Festival in October, where the film was in line for the Best Film Prize.

Produced by Portobello Productions and Penzance Films, Moffie will show at various screenings across Europe and the UK before heading for local screens on March 13, 2020.
The BIFA ceremony takes place on Sunday, 1 December.
Digitas Liquorice, Yonder Media score big at MMA Smarties 2019
Digitas Liquorice emerged as the most awarded agency at the Mobile Marketing Association South Africa’s Smarties – the country’s only awards that measures business results before strategy, creativity and execution – at its annual Gala Awards at Monte Casino.

Digitas Liquorice scooped eight awards, including three SMARTIES and the coveted Agency of the Year Award. Yonder Media also has big reasons to celebrate: the agency ended up taking home two Golds – both for EMEA categories: Product Launch EMEA and Best in Show EMEA.
Yonder, who was shortlisted for two Smarties X Awards, nine Smarties EMEA Awards and six Smarties SA awards, is the first SA agency to pick up the Best in Show across the EMEA Region.
See all the 2019 SMARTIES winners here:
New Media bags Gold in the Big Apple
New Media scooped four Gold Awards (category wins) and a host of honourable mentions at the 2019 Folio Awards in New York City on 30 October. The Folio: Eddie and Ozzie Awards is the most prestigious awards programme in the publishing community. Each year, over 2 000 entries compete to take home the Gold across 240 categories benchmarking excellence in editorial and design.
Woolworths TASTE won the highly prestigious Overall Content Marketing Video category for its How To content and received an honorary mention in the same category for its documentary content. This comes off the back of the successful rebranding of Woolworths TASTE’s YouTube channel as TASTETube in November 2018.
FNB Sync, the internal platform-led content hub for FNB also walked away with Gold in the Content Marketing category for Best App/Digital Edition.

Proving that innovation can also live in print, VISI magazine walked away with two Gold Awards for its iconic 100th issue. This bumper 352-page issue won Gold in the category Consumer General: Full Issue as well as the Best Design of a single issue. The 100th issue was also accompanied by 100 carefully curated gift boxes, which were made available to loyal readers on the VISI website. These sold out within just two weeks and have led to the upcoming launch of the VISI online shop.
The nods at the 2019 Folio Awards come hot on the heels of four trophy wins at the 2019 SA Publication Forum Awards earlier in September.
Naked, Over emerge as winners at MTN App Awards
Johannesburg-based insurtech startup Naked Insurance emerged the overall winner of this year’s MTN App Awards at the Sandton Convention Centre last Thursday, scooping the best financial solution and best app accolades.
The app uses cutting-edge artificial intelligence and chatbots to give consumers insurance cover at the touch of a smart-screen in under three minutes. The app is almost fully automated to manage clients’ policies, keeping costs lower while driving greater efficiency.

The awards were held and spanned multiple categories including consumer, enterprise, healthcare, gaming, educational and financial solutions. Over 600 entries were submitted for this year’s edition.
The winner of the best consumer app for 2019 is Over, an app that aims to equip users with the design tools, confidence and knowledge required to build a business, grow a brand, or stand out in an increasingly crowded world.
SA’s Ukheshe wins global fintech hackcelerator
The SA Reserve Bank has named SA’s Ukheshe and Canada’s MindBridge Analytics the winners of its 2019 Global Fintech Hackcelerator @ Southern Africa competition, a fintech acceleration programme that creates a platform for fintech firms to demonstrate their innovative solutions to the complex financial challenges in the Southern African region.
In all, 95 fintech firms from across the globe applied for the hackcelerator. The two winners were selected by a panel of judges from the Reserve Bank, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), KPMG Singapore as well as local financial industry experts.

Johannesburg-based Ukheshe enables informal merchants, traders, street vendors and casual labourers to accept real-time digital payments from cardholders or different payment apps, without needing to have a bank account. In April, the startup announced that it had raised $500 000 in seed funding on a valuation of R100-million from FiTech Ventures and Ocean on 76. MindBridge Analytics’ AI Auditor platform automates the ingestion and analysis of data, as well as learns from user interaction to identify fraud.
AfricaCom Awards 2019 Shortlist announced
The AfricaCom Awards has announced the current shortlist of nominees. Top honours will be revealed next Wednesday, November 13, at The Lookout in the V&A Waterfront. The Awards are a highly respected extension of AfricaCom, the world’s largest Africa-focused technology, telecommunications and media event. It will take place in Cape Town, South Africa 12 – 14 November 2019.
Here are the luminaries leading the pack:
Connecting the Continent Award:
- Angola Cables
- Cambridge Broadband Networks (CNBL)
- Liquid Telecom
- Orange
- Parallel Wireless
- PCCW Global
- Upstream Systems
Delivering Excellence in Customer Experience
- Alepo Technologies Inc.
- Ericsson & MTN Group
- MTN & Huawei
- MTN South Africa & Huawei
- Orange
Everything as a service – Best Cloud or Application Solution
- Mavenir
- PCCW Global
- Orange
- Verimatrix
Changing Lives Award
- Erissson South Africa in partnership with Wot-If? Trust
- iShamba Limited
- ISOCEL Telecom
- KaiOS Technologies
- Liquid Telecom
- Orange
Best Digital Entertainment Innovation
- Orange
- Telecoming
Security Product or Service of the Year
- Orange
- Upstream Systems
Best Network Management Software
- Ericsson
- Mavenir
- MTN & Huawei
- Orange – Huawei
- PCCW Global
Best Connected Consumer Device
- Huawei Technologies
- Orange (Smart Wifi)
- Orange (SANZA)
Best Innovation for Enterprise
- Comviva Technologies Ltd
- LMT
- MTN South Africa & Huawei
- MTN Uganda & Huawei
- SqwidNet
Most Innovative Service -The Business of Tomorrow
- BRCK
- Cassava Smartech and Comviva Technologies Ltd
- KaiOS Technologies
- Safaricom & Huawei
- Tramigo
- World Telecom Labs and iPlans
CXO of the Year
- Anthoinet Ohene-Amoah, CEO, GetHer In Digital
- Antonio Nunes, CEO, Angola Cables
- Charles Molapisi, CTO, MTN Group
- Gerard Lokossou, CEO, Orange DRC
- Richmond Nagbe Tobii, Managing Director, LIBTELCO
- Stephane Duproz, CEO, Africa Data Centres
- Yonny Firedman, co-Founder and CEO, Menta Music
Enterprise CxO of the Year
- Ainojie (Alex) Irune, COO, Oando Energy Resources
- Busiswa Lutshaba, Director, Blu Space Communications SA
- Irene Kiwia, Founder and CEO, Twaa
- Kasango Dickens, CEO, Pison Public Relations
- Niklas Ekdahl, CEO, Connected Video at Multichoice
- Rebatho Madiba, Acting CIO, Transnet
- Tijan Chorr, Founder and CEO, LagaAfrik
- Warren Hero, CDO, Webber Wentzel

The awards will be held on 13 November at The Lookout in Granger Bay, Cape Town, with the theme ‘Secret Garden’ marking the juxtaposition between the natural and digital worlds.
AfricaCom 2019 will bring together 15 000 attendees, 450 speakers and 500 exhibitors showcasing technologies and solutions covering everything from 5G, AI, IoT, Fintech, Blockchain and beyond, with a host of new content and exciting developments.
Click on the links to register as Media or Delegates.
Standard Bank Wealth and Investment wins Best Private Bank for Customer Service in Africa at the Global Private Banking awards
The 2019, PWM The Banker, Global Private Banking Awards have recognised Standard Bank Wealth and Investment as the winner of Best Private Bank for Customer Service in Africa, Best Private Bank in Kenya for the third time and in Nigeria for 4 years in a row, and Highly Commended Private Bank in South Africa.

The awards ceremony was held at the Sheraton in London on Thursday. The awards are a collaboration between The Banker and Professional Wealth Management magazines, two leading specialist titles under the Financial Times. This year the awards were adjudicated by 16 independent judges, who had to go through hundreds of applications from across the world.
Standard Bank Wealth and Investment has a presence throughout South Africa as well as Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Jersey and London. This international footprint, combined with the Standard Bank Group’s own African and International presence, and over a 156-year heritage, empowers the division with the diversification needed to lead a globally effective wealth strategy.
The latest award coincides with the recent award win of the Outstanding Global Private Bank for Africa and the Best Next-Generation Offering at the 29th Private Banker International Global Wealth Awards for Standard Bank Wealth and Investment in September and the Euromoney magazine’s Africa’s Best Bank for Wealth Management awarded in July, further reflecting consistency in delivering solutions that matter. Other Euromoney awards received by Standard Bank Group include Best Bank in South Africa and Best Bank in Uganda.