The 8th edition of the DStv Eutelsat Star Awards has once again crowned two new continental overall winners!

Botswana's Tanaka Chonyera scoops top honours in the essay category

Priscilla Marealle makes it a back-to-back win for Tanzania in the poster category

Accra, 13 February 2019- The winners of the 8th edition of the DStv Eutelsat Star Awards were announced today during a ceremony held in Accra, Ghana. Eighteen-year-old Tanaka Chonyera has put Botswana on the map by scooping top honours in the essay category. Nineteen-year-old Priscilla Marealle was announced as the overall winner in the poster category, making it a back-to-back win from Tanzania.

Tanaka's entry was written in a confident, concise and factual manner and made for an intriguing, engaging and educational read. It was quite clear that he has cultivated his passion with research and study, that has resulted in sound knowledge and understanding of the subject matter, says Paolo Nespoli, an ESA (European Space Agency) Astronaut who chaired the jury of the Awards.This is what the jury members said about Priscilla's poster: The poster was artistically well executed, with imaginative use of mixed media to create visual interest. Consistent with the topic, the poster depicts how satellite can be further embraced in Africa to address key continental challenges, such as protection and monitoring of biodiversity, agriculture and mineral resources.

During her keynote speech at the Awards ceremony, the Hon. Patricia Appiagyei, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Environment, Science Technology and Innovation said It is our ministry's pleasure to be part of this exemplary initiative by two technology-oriented companies to inspire the learning and application of Science and Technology in everyday activities. Our ministry is at the fore-front of promoting a paradigm shift in the way we approach our developmental issues as a country and more broadly as a continent. Having reviewed some of the topics from previous competitions of the DStv Eutelsat Star Awards, we are feelelated by the myriad of young African minds across our continent that are tasked to use satellite technology to address basic human challenges on our continent.

This pan-African competition has invigorated a passion for science and technology amongst younger generations and will culminate with an outreach where over 200 Ghanaian students have an opportunity to ask a real-life astronaut questions about outer space. To date the competition has drawn over 8000 entries across the continent and has over the years created meaningful engagement with students, the academic community and the scientific world. Sixteen overall winners' horizons have been broadened by the once-in-a-lifetime experiences the competition has afforded them.

The winner in the essay category has won a trip for two to Paris and onwards to a launch site in French Guiana to witness a rocket blast into space in order to place a satellite into orbit. This is Botswana's first win in the essay category, after producing a runner-up in the poster category in 2016. East Africa continues its dominance of the Awards with 7 overall winners and runner-up's thus far. The winner in the poster category has wons a trip for two to visit the South African National Space Agency and MultiChoice facilities. The two winning schools attended by the overall winners will be rewarded with a DStv installation, including dish, TV set, PVR decoder and free access to the DStv Education Package.

For this edition, students from secondary (high) or combined schools were asked to write a creative essay or design a poster based on the topic: Currently, satellites are being used in a variety of ways but there is always room for expansion and growth. Write an essay or design a poster on areas you believe the full potential of satellites has not yet been tapped into or embraced.

All details on the judging criteria, national prizes and finalists' selection are available on the DStv Eutelsat Star Awards website: http://www.dstvstarawards.com/about.html

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About MultiChoice Africa

MultiChoice Africa is a video entertainment provider, and our role is to enrich lives. Our mission is to deliver value to our customers by making great entertainment more accessible to millions of people across Africa - anytime, anywhere via multiple platforms including Direct-To-Home satellite (DTH) platform - DStv (www.dstv.com), a Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) platform - GOtv (www.gotvafrica.com) as well as Video-On-Demand and OTT platforms Showmax and DStv Now. Whether it's local telenovelas, the excitement of world-class sport or the latest global blockbusters, our investment in leading-edge content and technology systems deliver the shows that people love into their hands and homes. Born and bred in Africa, MultiChoice Africa is managed and run by local people with a team of more than 2750 full-time and over 14 000 contractors and independent agencies and accredited installers who collectively deliver the greatest entertainment in the world to more than 49 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa. Our business has grown hand-in-hand with local economies by forging long-term partnerships with governments, national broadcasters and entrepreneurs and as the continent's leading funder of sport and local productions, we've built skills and capacity to improve the quality of content we offer through our flagship corporate shared value initiative, MultiChoice Talent Factory (MTF) (www.multichoicetalentfactory.com). It's by creating value for our customers, our employees and society that we will continue to build a successful business for the future. Visit www.multichoiceafrica.com for more information.

Press contact:

Lebogang Ramothata

Tel: +27 11 289 4366

lebogang.ramothata1@multichoice.co.za

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