High-flying culinary nomad Katlego Mlambo

In the upcoming new season of MasterChef South Africa, the home cooks set to embark on a life-changing culinary journey will have to impress a food maestro who has cooked for high-profile dinner guests like Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Black Coffee, and Beyoncé and Jay-Z. 

One of the coolest chefs in the country, Katlego Mlambo, will make his bow as MasterChef judge in the fifth local season of the sizzling cooking show to be screened on SABC 3. The other two members of the esteemed trio confirmed to guide and grill the contestants are seasoned MasterChef South Africa judges Zola Nene and Justine Drake.

Katlego’s own impressive food journey started when he witnessed an incredible love of food during his childhood. “My first four culinary mentors were the home cooks who raised me – my granny, mother and two aunts. My grandmother would whip up amazing dishes on Sundays, and I was absolutely enthralled by how basic ingredients could turn into the tastiest banana bread and scones,” Katlego explains. “So, I became this little sous chef in our home kitchen.”

Thereafter, the travel bug bit the Eldorado Park-born food fanatic, creating opportunities to master his craft at top restaurants across the world. With stints in international restaurants in Great Britain and the United States, Katlego soaked up the distinct food flavours from these regions.

Back home, he studied at the highly regarded Silwood School of Cookery and later raked in several prestigious accolades, including the 2019 Eat Out Nederburg Rising Star Award. That was also the year he jetted to Washington as appointed head chef for the Nelson Mandela Centenary Celebrations, hosted at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington. The event was attended by 500 of the most prominent leaders and celebrities in the world.

Katlego’s exceptional flair behind the pots and pans and unique food fusion also earned the jazz eatery Marabi Club the African Restaurant of The Year gong at the Luxe Awards. Furthermore, Katlego presented two television shows on the Food Network – Inside Job and Everyday Wow.

Still, this humble food guru, who briefly appeared as a guest judge in the previous season of MasterChef South Africa, says he had to pinch himself when hearing that he would be one of  Season 5’s  main judges: “It’s amazing to know that I will be part of a show that’s a global phenomenon. It’s proof that if you believe in something, see it and taste it, it can become a reality. Being a MasterChef judge was on my bucket list.”

Katlego confesses that he looks forward to being the one waiting to be served and not the other way around. “But even though I will be on the receiving end, tasting and judging the food whilst mentoring the contestants, I know I will also be inspired by their creations from ingredients in the Pick and Pay pantry. One can never stop learning, and I can’t wait to experience the variety of cuisine created by contestants from different South African backgrounds”.

If you’re as passionate about cooking as inspirational guru Katlego Mlambo, you’ll find the MasterChef South Africa Season 5entry form at masterchefsa.tv. The closing date for entries is 15 March 2024 at 23:59.

The winner of MasterChef South Africa Season 5 will walk off with R1 million cash in prize money.

The show is produced by the multiple award-winning production company Homebrew Films for Primedia Studios, with Pick n Pay as the headline sponsor. It will be broadcast on SABC 3 from mid-June.

Esteemed all-rounder foodie Justine Drake joins Zola Nene as a judge

on MasterChef South Africa Season 5

Two of the judges who grilled and guided the passionate home cooks in the previous season of MasterChef South Africa will return for the fresh fifth local rendition of the world’s most successful television culinary competition. However, this time, they will bring their expertise to a much larger audience, as MasterChef South Africa Season 5 will be served up on free-to-air television in its new home on SABC 3.

After lifting the lid on culinary queen Zola Nene reprising her MasterChef judging role, the SABC 3 and the show producers have confirmed now that foodie dynamo Justine Drake will also be on judges’ duty.

Justine’s resumé reads like a winning recipe packed with various top-grade ingredients.

With more than 30 years of experience in the food and media industry, she has been the food editor or columnist of a buffet of print and online publications – from Fair Lady to Men’s Health. At the same time, Justine penned down several cookbooks, starting with The Busy Cook’s Cookbook at the age of 23.

This busy cook has also whipped up a popular YouTube channel, often talks about cuisine trends on the radio airwaves, and has hosted numerous television shows – amongst others, the BBC series Just in Africa, which showcased Mzansi’s rich culinary heritage, and her own creation, Just Cooking, in which she inspired audiences to jazz up everyday go-to meals.

“The role of MasterChef judge fits Justine, an esteemed foodie, like a stylish kitchen glove,” says Andrew Mills, Chief Marketing Officer at Pick n Pay, who is sponsoring MasterChef South Africa again this year. “For many years, she has helped our customers serve up delicious dishes through the Fresh Living publication and, as a judge last year, demonstrated an authentic connection with people from diverse backgrounds and different food cultures. She is also a hard taskmaster who always strives for excellence.”

Justine, for whom “mediocrity” is indeed a gastronomical sin, can’t wait to meet the new crop of passionate and dynamic MasterChef South Africa contestants, who will showcase their originality and flair with different food flavours by using items from the Pick n Pay pantry.

“The aim of the show is to allow home cooks to achieve their MasterChef status. However, it doesn’t arrive on a silver platter. The participants are put to the test in gruelling challenges, and to reach the top of the culinary ladder, they have to be disciplined and willing to learn,” Justine says.

That’s why she encourages all home cooks who don’t just love cooking but who can’t imagine a life without cooking to enter this upcoming season of MasterChef South Africa. “If you have a culinary vision and are ready to work hard to achieve your culinary dream,the world is your oyster with this show.”

Entries are now open and The MasterChef South Africa Season 5 winner will be able to boost their foodie future with a cash prize of R 1 million.

If you want to enter MasterChef South Africa, you’ll find the application form at masterchefsa.tv. The closing date for entries is 15 March 2024 at 23:59.

MasterChef South Africa will be broadcast on SABC 3 from mid-June. The show is produced by the multiple award-winning production company Homebrew Films in collaboration with Primedia Studios, with Pick n Pay as the headline sponsor.

The third MasterChef South Africa judge will be announced in due course. 

GRAND PRIZE WINNER REVEALED

Johannesburg, 20 February 2024-  On Spring Day, 1 September 2023 SABC TV Licences launched the Win A Holiday Experience competition campaign in an effort to encourage South African customers to pay (or, renew) their TV Licences.

For their efforts, customers would be rewarded with weekly prizes such as Hisense Smart TVs, JBL Bluetooth Speakers, Sony Wireless Headphones and Lenovo laptops. This would be done through a random selection automated by a dedicated microsite that was setup to monitor the competition entries.

In order to qualify for the prizes, the customer needed to pay their TV Licence between 1 September 2023 and 15 December 2023; then go to www.winaholidayexperiencewithsabctvlicences.co.za; register for the competition; receive a confirmation message stating that their entry is valid; then, a random winner would be selected each week from the valid entries.

To sweeten the deal, the overall winner for the competition would get to choose an international experience between the Coachella music festival in California, United States of America. Or, a Bundesliga match in Germany.

Thabo Batshe, a 26-year-old hailing from Kimberley, in the Northern Cape entered the Win A Holiday Experience with SABC TV Licences competition hoping he would get one of the weekly prizes.

“I was on Twitter, and I saw [the competition],” Batshe explained.

“After entering the competition because I had paid my TV Licence about a month ago, I saw a couple of winners on Twitter and Instagram, and I was really rooting for a Play Station because I saw that someone had won a Play Station” he continued.

Like many hopefuls, Thabo Batshe was redirected to the Win A Holiday Experience with SABC TV Licences microsite from social media – where he clicked on one of the links shared from the SABC Corporate pages. After filling out his TV Licence and personal contact details he received a confirmation message on his email account that informed him that his entry was valid and that he had been placed in the pool where a lucky winner would be randomly selected for either a weekly prize or the grand holiday experience.

Clement Maosa from SABC 1’s Skeem Saam broke the news to Thabo Batshe when they secretly met up at the Randburg Sports Complex earlier in the year. “Today is a big day because we are going to meet the winner of the SABC TV Licences’ Win A Holiday Experience competition,” Maosa explained.

“What Thabo does not know is that he is the overall winner of the competition. He thinks he is coming here to pick one of the weekly packages only to realize that he is the grand winner.”

Thabo Batshe, who had entered the competition when he was still at his grandmother’s place in Kimberley, had since moved to Johannesburg for work and is now living in the Randburg area. He was with his girlfriend when Clement Maosa revealed the surprise to him.

“I have been telling him that I actually want to go to Coachella,” the girlfriend explained.

“One thing that I am really looking forward to is experiencing a festival of this nature,” Batshe said in excitement. “And also going overseas and getting to travel.”

Thabo Batshe works in Marketing as a Communication Assistant and completed his Bachelor of Arts in Communication Sciences at the University of the Free State. This was followed by a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Strategic Communication at the University of Johannesburg. It will be his first time traveling outside of South Africa and he is currently applying for his passport which he will need to get a VISA in order to travel to California, in America.

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival will be taking place between the 19th and 21st of April 2024.

Johannesburg, 15 February 2024 – S3 is pleased to announce the launch of its Bollywood Film Festival for the Sunday 2 pm daytime viewing.  

The upcoming Bollywood film line-up will allow film fanatics to meet the heroes of the Indian screen from the 18th of February 2024, when the selected 27 films produced in India are introduced on S3, presenting a top-quality release each week.  

The film offering on S3 will include the following films: Dream Girl, a comedy-drama featuring a cross-gender actor whose search for employment lands him a job at a call centre where exclusively female operators work as fantasy entertainers; Nerkonda Paarvai, in which a retired lawyer with a sharp eye for details sets out to defend three young women falsely implicated in a criminal case, in the quirky thriller; Judgemental Hai Kya, a Landlord meets her new Tenants, a young married couple and their perfectly normal, life leaves her curious. But then, when a murder takes place, she suspects they have a role to play in the crime and Saina, a biographical sports drama based on the life of Badminton Player Saina Nehwal, who created history in 2015 by becoming the first Indian woman to attain the World No 1 ranking in Badminton.  

Some Bollywood heroes set to grace our screens are award-winning actors Kangana Ranaut and Rajkummar Rao, Parineeti Chopra, Ayushmann Khurrana, Nushrat Bharucha and Ajith Kumar.  

For more information and publicity images, contact the S3 Publicity office.  

Channel Your Best Entertainment with the spectacular Bollywood Film Festival every Sunday at 2 pm, only on S3.  

For media enquiries 

Caroline Phalakatshela 

Publicity Specialist – Video Entertainment  

072 382 2032/ phalakatshelamc@sabc.co.za 

Home cooks with a passion for food can now throw their name in the pot to be chosen as a contestant on the fresh new season of MasterChef South Africa, sponsored by Pick n Pay and broadcast on S3 (formerly known as SABC3).

If you’re a wizard in the kitchen whose divine dishes have friends and family begging for seconds, this television show could turn you into Mzansi’s next culinary sensation.

The winner of the local fifth version of the world’s biggest television cooking competition will also scoop a tasty R1 million in prize money.

To possibly bake, fry, or roast your way to success in the MasterChef South Africa kitchen, you must be a South African citizen above the age of 18 who has never earned a living as a professional chef.

You simply have to live and breathe food, love spending time in front of the stove, and know how to whip up the most mouthwatering meals. 

Based on these basic ingredients, the MasterChef South Africa producers will whittle down all the entries via different audition phases. Eventually, twenty contestants from different walks of life will wear MasterChef’s iconic apron representing South Africa’s rich and varied food culture. These twenty lucky amateur chefs will then be able to impress the show’s three celebrity judges with their culinary creations from the ingredients stocked in the kitchen’s Pick n Pay Pantry.

So, how do you enter this life-changing competition? Visit the official MasterChef South Africa website at www.masterchefsa.tv, where you’ll find all the instructions. Also, make sure you use this exact website address. Since MasterChef is a global phenomenon produced in many countries, there are dozens of show and fan pages on the internet.

The closing date for entries is 15 March 2024.

The multiple-award-winning Cape Town-based production company Homebrew Films will produce MasterChef South Africa.

-ends

Media queries:

Lani Lombard

Primedia Studios Head of Publicity

+27 (72) 213 7754

lani@primedia.co.za

Caroline Phalakatshela

Publicity Specialist – SABC Video Entertainment

phalakatshelamc@sabc.co.za

+27 (72) 382 2032

Johannesburg, 30 October 2023 – S3 and Carol Bouwer Productions congratulate the newly crowned Miss World South Africa Claude Mashego, who on Saturday night earned the right to represent the country at the Miss World pageant in New Delhi, India, on March 3rd, 2024.

In March next year, Claude will join contestants from more than 100 countries and territories to become Miss World 2023. Miss World 2022 Karolina Bielawska from Poland will crown her successor at the event.

“It gives us great pleasure to congratulate Claude for her outstanding achievement. She is an epitome of good character, charm, poise, and an ambassador of the ‘Beauty with a Purpose’ ethos of the Miss World Organisation,” said Carol Bouwer, the license holder of Miss World South Africa and President of Miss World South Africa Organisation.

Her goal is to build a network of young leaders and community builders in South Africa and across the continent through her non-profit company, The Young Leaders Network.

 What does the young girl from Acorn Hoek, Bushbuckridge, like most about herself?

“I’m real. I have been quite intentional about incorporating authenticity into my DNA because I believe that is what makes one relatable. Relatability allows people to connect with you human to human, and that’s what amplifies the impact of everything you do,” said University of Pretoria – Bachelor of Medicine & Surgery graduate.

More than 130 nations, including South Africa, are franchised to host local Miss World competitions.

Since August, 27 contestants were judged on personality, character, intelligence, talent, beauty of face, figure, deportment, charm, poise, general conversation, as well as conduct and charitable involvement. Twelve contestants made it to the final held on Saturday.

“It takes hard work, dedication, and confidence to make it through judging and come out on top. Claude’s unwavering resilience, commitment and strong will have paid off, and our hearts beat with love and admiration for her. Congratulations on this amazing win,” said Bouwer, founder of Carol Bouwer Productions.

“I also congratulate and pay tribute to the first princess, Zoalize Jansen Van Rensburg, and second princess, Allysa Smith. Congratulations to them on achieving such tremendous success in this competition. They have done what some can only dream of. They have participated in the beauty pageant and sometimes made it look effortless.

Zoalize, 18, dreams of being a world leader who can uplift South Africa and believes that an important issue facing the youth is access to equal education.

Alyssa, 26, an admitted attorney of the High Court, is a passionate volunteer and an advocate of Community Social Investment projects.

 “To the other nine finalists, seeing the result of all your dedication and determination was inspiring. May each step of your future endeavours bring more joy and happiness,” said Bouwer.

Since it was founded in 1951, Miss World – one of the longest-established global pageants, has used the “Beauty with a Purpose” ethos to raise money for organisations that support disadvantaged and disabled children and other deserving causes.

For media enquiries:

Contact

Caroline Phalakatshela

Publicity Specialist: Video Entertainment

072 382 20232/ Email: phalakatshelamc@sabc.co.za