This year marks the 21st South African Breweries United (SAB) Environmental Journalists and Environmentalist of the Year Awards. Three of the awards carry a cash prize of R15,000 each, as well as a trophy. Merit prizes carry a prize of R2,000 each. SAB has also introduced a new category, the Magqubu Ntombela and Ian Player Cub Award, which will honour environmental journalists starting out in the field; and this carries a R5,000 prize and trophy. Editors throughout South Africa are encouraged to identify their most promising young journalists who have been in the business for less than five years. The award is named after lumZulu game ranger Magqubu Ntombela and conservationist Dr Ian Player who were part of the team that saved the white rhino from extinction in the 1960s.

The awards are made in four categories:

• Print and Internet: includes all newspapers, magazines, and websites, as well as photography;
• Radio and Television: includes all broadcast media, independent filmmakers, and production houses;
• The Nick Steele Memorial Award: in the past this award was given to journalists; however, for the previous two years, it has been awarded to the Environmentalist of the Year, given in honour of the late game ranger Nick Steele; and
• The Magqubu Ntombela and Ian Player Cub Award: for promising young environmental journalists.

Click here for more information about the award.

All journalists are invited to submit their own work. Editors, managers, and colleagues are invited to nominate the work of others. Applicants should submit the following to the contact below: the entry form; a brief statement in support of the material (including one copy of the work that forms the basis of the nomination); a high-resolution picture of themselves; and the original entry.

Click here for more information about entering.

Click here to download the entry form in PDF format.

SAB Environment website on September 15 2009.