Our Awards

After submitting 19 entries for the IABC Silver Quill Awards, CMD won 13 awards across several professional categories. As can be seen from the table below, the department has increased its awards wins consecutively across all categories between 2016 and 2020. Unfortunately, some of the awards programmes were cancelled as a result of the pandemic.

News of the department’s most recent awards arrived at the end of June from the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC). CMD’s head of video production, Roxanne Harris, received an IABC Gold Quill 2021 Best of the Best Award in the Audio/Visual category for Thuma Mina. The award-winning video featured the UCT Choir’s rendition of the isiZulu hymn, and pays homage to members of the university community who worked tirelessly on the frontline of the pandemic.

UCT News senior writer, Helen Swingler, was also recognised in the recent IABC Gold Quill awards. Her piece The dead teach in a universal language received international industry recognition with an IABC Gold Quill 2021 Merit Award.

During 2020, and over the last six months, CMD also received a further 15 international and national industry awards. The award-winning projects and the recipients are as follows:

• Writer Carla Bernardo’s UCT’s hijab-wearing rugby player talks inclusivity won a Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Circle of Excellence Silver Award in the Writing category. She also received two IABC Silver Quill Merit Awards for Ben Kies: The Cape radical and S-s-some things to know about snakes in the Writing category.
• CMD’s Newsroom and Video Production’s (NVP) Transformation Report 2019 won a CASE Circle of Excellence Gold Award in the Publications category and a Silver Quill Excellence Award.
• Writer Niemah Davids won two IABC Silver Quill Merit Awards for Centre has ‘Africanised’ neuroscience and Touch down for SA’s banking Siri in the Writing category.
• Swingler won two IABC Silver Quill Merit Awards for Body of work: reflections of an anatomist and Women take top spots in civil engineering in the Writing category. She won an Excellence Award in the Writing category for “The dead teach in a universal language”, which made the award eligible for the international Gold Quill Awards.
• NVP’s Web Content won two IABC Silver Quill Merit Awards in the Communication for the Web category for the UCT December 2019 Graduation feature page and the Sutherland Reburial feature page.
• Jolene Steenkamp from CMD’s Marketing and Stakeholder Relations unit won an IABC Silver Quill Merit Award for the Vice-Chancellor’s Inaugural Lecture Series, in the Special and Experiential Events category.
• NVP’s Video Production won an IABC Silver Quill Merit Award for An honorary encore for renowned South African ballet master and a Silver Quill Excellence Award for “Thuma Mina”, making it eligible for the Gold Quill Awards.