Well done to all those writers who submitted a story! We received such wonderful entries. Thank you! The winners are…
JUNIOR WINNER: MORENA MOAKA
Morena Moaka is our junior winner. From Germiston, Gauteng he is a keen writer and a FunDza Fan. He says “Considering that this is my second time winning a competition with FunDza and in two consecutive years, it feels great to win. I mean what were the odds of that? Nevertheless I am more excited about getting to share my story and futuristic thoughts with everybody else. I’ll probably use some of the money to add on to my hard copy collection of Diary of A Wimpy Kid, either than that, it would be wise to save the rest seeing that the summer holidays are slowly approaching us.”
Read his story: Normalisation
SENIOR WINNER: JEAN-PAUL WILLEMSE
Jean-Paul Willemse, from Kraaifontein, Cape Town was our senior winner. Jean-Paul says “I feel like my practice in writing science fiction has beared some fruit. When I finished Buddy I knew it was a product of my research and binge watching of Doctor Who. In short, I am proud. I am going to get a new tattoo and buy Fifa 18.” His story “Buddy” was a smart artificial intelligence type story, that had everyone hooked. Jean-Paul is a gifted writer and we look forward to more submissions from him.
Read his story: Buddy
Top row: Kyle, Jean-Paul and Nivashnie.
Bottom row: Shikhar, Morena and Brian.
RUNNERS-UP:
The runners-up followed close at the heels of the winners. Well done to the following:
Kyle Walker, Junior runner-up:
Kyle said: “Being a runner up came as a shock, I was even expecting to finish in top ten! I’ve always been really shy, and not really be able to talk openly, I feel like I can say more with a notepad and a pen in ten minutes than I could in an hour on a microphone. Being a runner up in my first ever writing competition, it’s galvanised me and has made me hungry for more!”
Read his story: The Final War
Shikar Singh, Junior runner-up:
Shikhar was thrilled to be a runner up, and told us that he is “glad to have participated in this competition and that even though I didn’t win first prize, doesn’t mean I won’t learn from his mistakes in the future.” (We explained that there were no mistakes and he should be proud of his achievement!)
Read his story: 2044: The Aftermath
Nivashnie Poonsamy, Senior runner-up:
Nivashnie, from Durban, said: “I want to express my gratefulness to FunDza for giving people like myself these wonderful opportunities to write and to put our work out there. I am someone that is only happy when I am reading, writing or finding myself being moved by a profound line or character in a movie. I have been told countless times that being a writer is ‘illogical’ and that I should rather put my law degree to good use. Entering this competition was actually a ‘Lord give me a sign that I should keep writing’ attempt and well….I think I got my sign!”
Read her story: The Game
Brian Khumalo, Senior runner-up:
Brian was beyond thrilled. In the phone-call he couldn’t stop laughing, saying we’d made his day! He went on to tell us more about him and how he felt about being a runner up: “I started blogging about four years ago and that is when I realised my passion for writing. I used my blog to write short stories and essays about the interesting ‘characters’ I found in the taxi. Last year I decided to challenge myself and take my writing more seriously. That is when I discovered FunDza. The feedback from the editors propelled me to exceed my expectations and I cannot thank them enough! This was the first writing competition I have ever entered and being the runner-up is such an honour. This was such an exciting challenge and I am more than delighted that the team enjoyed my story. I would like to thank FunDza for the lovely platform they have created for us and I wish you guys all the success and further development!”
Read his story: The Gift
Well done to ALL the writers who entered and submitted brilliant stories, and special congratulations to the winners!