Gibbs Magazine correspondent Sifelani Tsiko
-Environmental Reporter of
the Year 2006-
Harare, Zimbabwe (February 25 2007)
Award-winning Gibbs Magazine correspondent
Sifelani Tsiko was crowned the Rainbow
Tourism Group/Environment Africa
Environmental Reporter of the year for 2006,
at a glittering ceremony held at a hotel in
the capital, Harare last Friday. Tsiko
walked away with a floating trophy, cash, an
all-inclusive holiday package for two at any
Rainbow Group hotels for two nights in the
Victoria Falls plus two return air tickets
to the resort town.
He
also got a Siemens cellphone, plus a Net One
cellular line, a miniature trophy and a
certificate. Judges commended Tsiko for
demonstrating a great deal of depth in the
analysis of the stories he covered. The
judges noted that Tsiko's winning article
"Bio-diversity piracy" was presented with
outstanding qualities.
"The article introduced, explained and set
debate on a subject that is fairly new to
Zimbabwe, 'Bio-diversity piracy. The deeply
researched article was complete and did not
leave the reader with questions. Interesting
facts and examples made the article a read
and reread piece," the judges said in a
citation for the winner.
Last year in July, Tsiko scooped the RTG/Environment
Africa Environmental of the Year's second
quarter award, which is presented to
journalists who have excelled in
reporting on the environment every four
months. Tsiko is a recipient of several
other awards, adding to his list of personal
achievements. [And he is one of Gibbs
Magazine's most
prolific and consistent weekly columnists.]
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Sifelani:
Congratulations, Sifelani!! We are very
proud of you. You have always shown yourself
to be an excellent writer; such an award is
well deserved for your talents and your
commitment to a better, cleaner environment.
We will run this story as our top story for
Feb. 24-March 5, that our 500,000 monthly
readers around the world may see and know of
the award that you have just received. This,
however, is not the first award you have
received for your writing--[See his
Archive of writings for Gibbs]. In
writing about environmental issues you join
hands with many others who work elsewhere
throughout the world for a better world and
a better environment. Keep the good work up,
brother!
We
love you here for what you are doing there!
Of course, you know that, as the Rev. John Donne once
said, “…no man is an island, apart from the
main,” and Martin Luther King amplified that
statement when he said, “…there is an
interconnectedness of all communities.” So
what you do there brings us closer here.
It
is my firm belief that the nations of Africa
shall shortly lead the world in development
and environmental technologies; keep doing
what you are doing!
Frank A. Jones,
Gibbs Publisher
