SOUTH AFRICAN SPORT7 AUG 2026Calling the shots, changing the gameA quiet revolution has unfolded in South African sports broadcasting, where a remarkable group of pioneering women have claimed their space with knowledge, poise, and…Lelo Mzaca8 min read

Let’s talk about the vibrant and passionate world of South African sport, where the roar of the crowd at a Premier Soccer League derby or the crack of leather on wil- low at a Proteas Test can define a nation’s mood. A quiet revolution has unfolded behind the micro- phones and in radio and TV studios. For decades, sports broadcasting was overwhelmingly a male domain, especially from the days of TV shows such as TopSport.

Yet a remarkable group of pioneer- ing women have claimed their space with knowledge, poise and unyield- ing professionalism. Figures such as Cynthia Tshaka, Kass Naidoo, Carol Tshabalala, Mpho Maboi, Lebo Motsoeli, Motshidisi Mohono, Xoli Zondo, Amanda Dlamini, Dikeledi Letsiri, Layla Arrison, Julia Stuart, Sebili Molefe, Vaylen Kirtley, Tholakele Mnganga, Vusiwe Ngcobo, Mampho Tsotetsi, Gloria Brown, Dr Desiree Ellis and Zanele Mdodana, to name but a few, have not only narrated the games we love, they have rewritten the rules of who gets to tell those stories. Tshaka stands at the foundation of the movement.

Recognised as the first black female sports broadcaster in South Africa and Africa, she began her radio career in the early 1990s and moved into television sports pre- senting at the SABC in 1995. There, she anchored programmes across multiple codes, including soc cer (notably Laduma), basketball, boxing, swimming, athletics, rugby and cricket on SABC 1, 2 and 3. She covered the Olympic Games from 1996 to 2008, the Commonwealth Games, the All Africa Games and broadcast the Two Oceans and Comrades Marathons for a decade, working alongside athletics legends.

[paywall]

Tshaka’s emotional reaction when South Africa lost the bid to host the 2006 Fifa World Cup became iconic across the continent; she later broad- cast live from Zurich when the nation secured the 2010 tournament. In the early 2000s, she also worked at my current radio home, Radio 2000. Later, she produced and hosted Women Sports Talk on SuperSport 4, the first dedicated South African and African television programme focused exclusively on women in sport. She has continued as a pow- erful advocate, activist and GSport Hall of Fame inductee, at an institu- tion founded by another trailblaz- ing woman in sport, the great Kass Naidoo.

[/paywall]