The 2023 South African Car of the Year committee has been revealed by Mabuyane Mabuza, chairperson of the South African Car of the Year Competition (COTY). (“2023 SOUTH AFRICAN CAR OF THE YEAR COMMITTEE ANNOUNCED – SAGMJ”)
Thami Masemola has contributed to and worked for several prestigious publications, websites, and media outlets, including the US-based motoring news site Motor1 (previously WorldCarFans.com), CAR magazine, TopCar, PiE magazine, the Sowetan newspaper, ThisDay newspaper, Dunhill magazine, Telkom magazine, Sunday World, City Press, and FinWeek (then called Finance Week). He also contributes to the motoring TV program Ignition. Masemola established IN4RIDE, the first and still-dominant 100% Black-owned and run dedicated online journal for the motoring industry. One of its many breakthroughs is that it was the first website of its sort to have a social media presence and to widely syndicate information to websites like news hub ENCA.com.
Jason Woosey has observed the news industry from a variety of perspectives. After beginning his work in the magazine industry and becoming a SAGMJ Bursar in 2002, Woosey entered the online world in 2010. He is a qualified petrolhead, a lover of all things automotive, and has a special interest in design. He is a guy of few words. He currently serves as the IOL’s Motoring Editor and has been on the Car of the Year jury twelve times.
One of the three South Africans on the World Car Awards jury is Brenwin Naidu. For the Arena Holdings publications Sowetan and Sunday Times Lifestyle, Naidu holds the position of motoring department editor. He received the 2017 Steve Dlamini Award for Excellence in Motoring Journalism, which is one of his accomplishments. He was listed among the Top 200 Young South Africans by the Mail & Guardian in 2021. He has a BA (Hons) in Media Studies from the University of Witwatersrand and more than ten years of media experience.
Beginning in 2006, Lerato Matebese began working in the automotive sector as a SAGMJ bursar. He joined Business Day in 2007 and worked for their weekly addition, Motor News, for 11 years as a senior motoring reporter. From 2007 to 2008, he served as Drum/You Magazine’s motoring editor. He began working with TCB Media in 2018 as the magazine’s premium title, Driven Magazine, for two years. Matebese co-founded Clipping Point Publishing in September 2020, a small, entirely black-owned publishing company that has been publishing The Mail & Guardian Motoring since June 2022 and TopGear Magazine SA at that time. He is one of three South Africans serving on the World Car of the Year Jury and has served on the SAGMJ South African Car of the Year Committee eight times.
The election or selection of jury members for the 2023 SA Car of the Year competition will be the first step in the procedure. After the formal qualification period concludes on October 31, 2022, the COTY committee will analyze all vehicles that have been introduced to determine which ones meet the specifications necessary to be considered for the title. Before the judges choose the finalists and start the official evaluation and scoring to choose category winners and one overall winner, the qualifying vehicles are reduced to a list of semi-finalists.
“My freshly assembled team is aware of COTY’s lengthy history. Each of us has been on juries numerous times, occasionally alongside legendary figures from the 1986 COTY inaugural competition. I and three other members of my team were SAGMJ bursars. The responsibility has been given to us, and we have accepted it. Now it is our turn to guide and lead the next generation, and there is no better group to do it with than this one,”
Mabuza said.
