Cape Town: The Library and Information Service of the city hosted a writing competition last month for young learners. The competition saw 131 stories which was submitted with the category winners and was announced at the Open Book Festival.
Reportedly, the participants included were of age between nine to thirteen and fourteen to seventeen. The competition was concluded on August 28, 2024, at the Home Coming Centre in Cape Town.
The learners who entered the competition had to write a story about an environmental hero, either as a short or long-form story, graphic novel, picture book or novel. Writing workshops were held at numerous libraries to assist the learners to acquire writing skills. The stories submitted were in the languages English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa.
As per the sources, the competition received so many entries that had beautiful illustrations and graphic sketches that the City of Cape Town Libraries and information Service decided to extend the certificates to include a creative component for outstanding artwork to Jordan Tiltman aged-13 from Fish Hoek Library and Luhle Mayeki aged-12from the Moses Mabhida Library.
In partnership with the Dream City author – Mzwamadoda Mvimbeli, the brand-new authors will get a chance to appear in an online production, reading and acting their own stories. Furthermore, the winning submissions will either be published or loaded onto the Library Service’s Libby App.
The winning submissions will either be published or loaded onto the Library Service’s Libby App. The winning stories for the categories of age 9- to 13-year-old categories that will be used for the Library Reading programme that will be rolled out in December.
Member of the Mayoral Committee for Community Services and Health – Councillor Patricia Van der Ross said that they are pleasantly surprised by the number of entries, the excitement and the quality of the stories submitted by the learners. The success of the writing competition is a shining example that the libraries are well visited and plays an important role as a knowledge centre in the communities.
Ross added, “I would like to congratulate all those who participated and especially the winners in the various categories. I hope that the competition will be a motivation for aspiring young writers to enter writing competitions.”
The popular writing competition received 131 entries from 33 libraries. The winners of the different categories are Isabella Ismail aged 11 was the winner under the category of age 9-13 in English language from Wynberg Library. Lethabo Nhlapho aged 12 was the runner-up.
In Afrikaans language, the winners were Skyler Plaatjies aged 10 from Strand Library. The Runner up was Elmone Tromp aged 11 from Huguenot Square Library. In IsiXhosa language, the winner was Uzuko Zenani aged 10 from Moses Mabhida Library and Alinda Zonke aged 12 was the runner-up.
Under the age of 14 to 18, in English language the winner was Cadence Marinus aged 14 from Ocean View Library and the runner was Latita Matyhila aged 17 from Langa Library.
In IsiXhosa language the winner was Sinalo Taho aged 17 from Harare Library and the runner up was Lilitha Macamba aged 15 from Nyanga Library.