The Sunday News
Loveness Mpofu, Sunday News Reporter
WINNERS of this year’s Sunday News Jet Baby of the Year competition yesterday walked away with cash and vouchers at a ceremony that was held at Edgars offices in Bulawayo.
There were four categories where eight babies won. The categories were 0-12 months and 13-24 months (boys and girls) and the number of winners were dropped to two per category.
Sunday News readers voted from 30 September to 29 October. Babies who won the first prize in both categories were awarded $300 while the runners-up received $250 and shopping vouchers from Jet Stores.
In the 0-12 months old boys category, Munashe Able Tuti won the first prize with Keanu Mihlayonke Ngwenya being the first runner-up while in the girls category Janelle Enhle Ziweya was the winner followed by Nicole Trish Mpofu.
Takudzwa Machisani and Allen Ntumelo Manyama won the first and second prize respectively in the 13-24-month-old boys category while Joyce Mbalenhle Mlauzi came first in the girls category followed by Jonatha Sibanda. The winners will be the face of Jet Baby Brand 2018.
Sunday News editor Mr Limukani Ncube, who presented certificates and prizes to the babies, thanked parents for allowing their children to participate.
“On behalf of Zimpapers, we thank you very much for being part and parcel of this exciting competition. We are a family newspaper and we publish stories that speak to us as families, therefore we thank you our readers for supporting us and we are happy to be in partnership with Jet Stores.
“This is our second year running this with Jet but as Zimpapers it’s the fourth year running. The competition has been very helpful to us business-wise and it has also enabled us to communicate with our readers, who are part of our family.”
Zimpapers business development manager Mr Martin Sibanda said the company will be giving the winners a discount of 10 percent for three months’ subscription of the stable’s newspapers.
“As a way of thanking you for your support we will be giving you everyday door to door deliveries of newspapers at a 10 percent discount for three months. Visit Chronicle offices on Monday to make subscriptions,” he said.
Parents could not hide their joy at the occasion. They shared stories of how they entered the competition, some of whom were doubtful of ever winning.
Mrs Sharon Mpofu, mother of the winner Takudzwa Machisani said: “I heard about the competition when I was buying clothes for my baby. After buying clothes worth $15 I went straight to the studio to shoot photos and when I got home my husband was against it saying that its satanism staff. However, after seeing our child in the finals he started campaigning for votes more than I did.”
Jet Brand Manager Mr Ndumiso Nyoni said his company will continue to support the competition.
“We want to thank all parents who took part in the competition, those who won and those who did not win. We value the support that we receive from you as our customers and we hope to grow this partnership we have with Sunday News even bigger. As Jet Stores, we will continue to give you valuable clothing,” he said.
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