FunDza in partnership with Freedom House Southern Africa joined forces to come up with a course competition based on the fictional three-part FunDza story, “The People of Phendula Park”.

The three stories – A predator among us, A thief among us, and A newcomer among us – follow the challenges of families living in Phendula Park – a community where the councillor is corrupt and has made false promises, where a young woman is raped and where ‘outsiders’ are shunned.

The three stories were incorporated into a special course competition that ran during October and November 2020. To enter, participants needed to read the stories and related talking points, and answer all the quizzes and surveys. They also needed to score an average of 60% overall in order to qualify for the competition.

More than 7,000 registered for the course, and around 1,800 completed it in full with just over 1,700 of these scoring 60% on average or more. All valid entrants were then put into a random draw, and a computer randomiser program selected the 10 lucky winners. Each winner is getting a goodie bag of treats from FunDza, as well as R1,000 in cash.

The 10 winners are:

Onele Mdlaza – Western Cape
Winning this competition means a lot to me and my family because I will spend my prize with them in pampering ourselves and buy some Christmas goodies.

Sizeka Cornellia Sqangwe – Gauteng
Winning this competition to me means I have overcame my wish,I have been trying to get a win on many competitions with no luck. I’m so happy and grateful to you for this opportunity.
I am going to buy myself a new phone so that’ll be able to keep reading and entering at Fundza mobile App.

Sbusiso Mtolo – KwaZulu- Natal
I am so excited, I cannot believe that I won. Thank you so much guys.

Brian Tlhabetsang – North West
It really means alot to me and the money would help me buy myself more reading books.

Pritty Cele Zanele – KwaZulu- Natal
Winning this competition means a lot to me, I couldn’t believe it but this is it and I indeed believe that anything is possible if you put your mind into it. I plan to surprise my mother with a best Christmas lunch during Christmas day, it will never be the same!

Yolandi Townsend – Gauteng
Winning meant alot to me I will be using the money to buy something nice for my kids for Christmas.

Charles Mokonyama – Gauteng
Thank you so much FunDza. I am going to pay my outstanding amount at UNISA.

Sisanda Zabezolo – Eastern Cape
It means alot for me to win this competition because it encourages me to read more books on FunDza and I am planning to buy my siblings Christmas clothes.

Nomalungelo Mpungose – KwaZulu- Natal
Winning this competition means a lot…a dream come true indeed. With this prize money I will buy my family Christmas presents.

Somelele Ntamo – Gauteng
Winning this competition feels so amazing and reading The People of Phendula Park is quite inspiring and life-affirming, especially the third part “The Newcomer Among Us”. Not only has it encouraged me to read more, it motivated me to write more. I’m going to use the prize money to spoil myself and do more research on how to be a published author because I plan to publish my own craft.

Congratulations to the winners, and indeed to all those who participated, and a big thank you to Freedom House for sponsoring this exciting special project.