Winners for exceptional service

At the annual Sefika Awards dinner this evening outstanding service to the publishing and bookselling industry was celebrated in style, with this year’s theme: “A splash of Colour”.

Publishers, booksellers and authors congregated at the Vineyard Hotel in Cape Town to applaud and be applauded for the roles they play in promoting literacy and a culture of reading by producing and selling quality books in South Africa.

Publishers Awarded:

Pan Macmillan for exceptional service as a general trade publisher
Oxford University Press for producing inspiring academic books
Via Afrika for continued excellence in creating educational books for our children (large publisher)
Berlut Books for their dedication to developing unique educational books (small publisher)

Booksellers Awarded:

Bargain Books as the most innovative general trade bookseller (chain)
Books and Books as the most pioneering general trade bookseller (independent)
Van Schaik Bookshops for effective academic bookselling
Boeke 24/7 for successfully delivering educational books to schools
Bookworld as the most efficient library supplier

The teams that won these awards are the leaders in literacy development in South Africa and it is important that the publishers are recognized for their dedication to producing works of perfection and that the booksellers are thanked for taking these works and getting them into the hands of readers country wide.

The final award for the evening, the Nielsen Booksellers Choice Award, now in its 13th year, is a very special award, bestowed upon an author for a book he or she has written that booksellers most enjoyed selling throughout the year. This year’s award went to Frank Chikane for Eight Days in September – The Removal of Thabo Mbeki by Frank Chikane, published by Picador Africa.

Sponsored by Paarl Media, Nielsen, SAPnet, Creda Communications, Lebone Litho Printers, Premier Freight, Geodis Wilson and On the Dot, the entire evening and all of the honour it bestows upon the recipients of the awards, is an annual highlight, celebrating South Africans that are advocates of literacy.