This year, the annual Pendoring Awards, a communication awards system, celebrates 29 years and continues to create a space for freedom of expression in South African languages.
It has also been announced that the entries are open (see www.pendoring.co.za) and close on September 30, with the awards ceremony set for November.
With more than 91% of South Africans speaking an indigenous language, the awards campaign for 2024 employs humour to emphasise the value of multilingualism and the freedom to communicate in our own language.
Pendoring Awards general manager Eben Keun said the awards recognised and honoured indigenous language communication, challenging the status quo in the industry.
“The Pendoring Awards encourage the communications sector to allow people the freedom to receive their communication in the way they want to consume it. Thirty years into democracy, so much is still communicated in English. Pendoring disrupts the status quo by awarding and rewarding indigenous language communication, making the Pendoring Awards truly unique in the communications awards ecosystem.
Keun said that through its partnership with One Show, the Prestigious Umpetha Award takes on a new form in 2024.
“This year’s winner will be entered into one category of the One Show 2025 to compete with and be ranked amongst the global best in advertising and design. This replaces the study/professional development cash prize previously awarded to winners of the Prestigious Umpetha Award.”
He said the Pendoring Awards were founded in 1995, and since then, the landscape around it had shifted over the past three decades. Thus, “we have continuously relooked at how best to serve the communications sector through Pendoring and support the growth of multilingual communications”.
“Many Pendoring-winning entries have gone on to also win big at global award shows; this new partnership with the One Show streamlines this process and reaffirms our belief in the high quality of work being created in indigenous languages in SA.”
Kelly Bardon, Joe Public’s Integrated Group account director, said: “We really enjoyed working on the Pendoring 2024 campaign brief. Our long-standing support for the Pendorings and their commitment to promoting the industry and indigenous languages motivated us to jump at the opportunity of working on this year’s campaign.
“Our aim is to make this an enjoyable and relatable campaign for everyone (and hopefully get a little chuckle), rooted on the strong insight that some things are really just better said in your language.”
Public’s campaign “Say it in your language” also showcases how indigenous phrases can lose meaning or convey new messages when translated into English.
The Star
anita.nkonki@inl.co.za