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Sydney Kawadza

Walter Mswazie in Masvingo
THE Herald Masvingo Bureau’s Sydney Kawadza yesterday scooped Environment Africa Best Print Features Reporter for 2017 at a ceremony held in Harare. The awards, co-founded by Environment Africa and Rainbow Tourism Group, had 110 entries from both the print and electronic media.

According to the judges’ report, the entries were diverse, showcasing development strategies, plans and programmes various sectors of society are engaged towards the maintenance and conservation of the environment.

Topics also ranged from waste management, wetlands preservation, changing climate, deforestation, land degradation, pollution, green energy, human and wildlife conflict to issues of human survival versus environmental sustainability.

Kawadza’s winning entry chronicles a heart-rending story of an 83-year-old trampled by an elephant. The story highlights efforts to mitigate human-animal conflict. Kawadza said the award was a motivation to other journalists to take up environment reporting as a passion.

“This is an important award for me as a journalist and I would like to express my gratitude to my colleagues at The Herald, especially the Editor-in-Chief, Caesar Zvayi, who continues to support us in this very difficult profession. The award should also be a motivation for all journalists, especially the juniors who should put more research in their work,” he said.

“It is an award which also highlights the domination of The Herald as a newspaper and Zimpapers as the only converged media group in Zimbabwe, as a leaders in the media industry.”