Mzansi Soul Awards

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Created on 05 October 2010

The many visitors to South Africa during the 2010 FIFA World Cup^TM enjoyed our breathtaking sunsets, warm beaches, mountains, Karoo landscapes, bushveld, and wild seas, but they also saw a nation who's potential is just being realised and people whose soul is built on an unyielding spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation.

Says Miller Matola, CEO of Brand South Africa “We surprised the rest of the world with delivering one of the most successful soccer World Cup’s ever seen. The Mzansi awards recognise and celebrate those unique and innovative individuals who helped ensure that the 2010 FIFA World Cup^TM was an outstanding success, but also highlight positive role models that encourage pride and patriotism in our country.

Voting to find the winner of the Mzansi Soul awards started on 15 September and ran until 4 October 2010.  It provided South Africans with an opportunity to nominate individuals whom they felt their soulful contributions made the World Cup a legacy we can be proud of.

The Five Top Nominees are:

• John Robie                -          702 Talk Radio Show Host.
• Caster Semenya      -          World Class Athlete
• Wyclef Christensen  -           A 7-year old boy who’s father passed away from a terminal illness but with tremendous courage managed rise above it.
• Lisa Steingold           -           Assisted her domestic worker to start a sewing business.

• Angela Larkan          -           Founded Thanda After School.  Thanda uses already existing resources to provide daily support to vulnerable children after school, enabling them to stay in their community while being educated and learning life skills.

After the votes were closed, Angela Larkan of Thanda After School received 80% of the votes and was nominated winner of the Mzansi soul awards.

The award was handed to a delighted Ms Larkan by Miller Matola, at the recently built Fire and Ice Hotel, Melrose Arch.

Said  Matola “The Mzansi Soul awards aimed to unearth the stories of true South Africans, and all our nominees truly reflected the values of Ubuntu that have contributed towards enhancing the pride and patriotism of South Africans.

We congratulate Ms Larkan, a worthy winner of the Mzansi Soul Awards.”

“We stood together as a nation in support of our team and our country. We learnt a valuable lesson, that together we can do anything we put our souls into. We put our souls into delivering a most memorable World Cup. Let us continue with the same spirit to build a nation that we can all be proud of,” concluded Matola.

Download the programme [PDF, 153kb]

About the International Marketing Council of South Africa (Brand South Africa)

The International Marketing Council of South Africa (IMC) was established in August 2002 to help create a positive and compelling brand image for South Africa. At that time, the world was unsure about what to think of South Africa, with many different messages being sent out by various sources. These did very little to build the country’s brand and it was evident that to attract tourism and investment there was a need to co-ordinate marketing initiatives to make them more effective. This led to the creation of the IMC, whose main objective is the marketing of South Africa through the Brand South Africa campaign.  There are many benefits to having a consolidated brand image, with the most important being that a consistent Brand South Africa message creates strategic advantages in terms of trade and tourism for the country in an increasingly competitive marketplace.