Gqeberha, Saturday, 28 October 2022 – The Eastern Cape’s biggest talent search competition, truTalent, has announced its winners for the 2022 Radio and DJ competitions.  Ntombozuko Bhalintuli triumphed in the Radio presenter category and Masonwabe Memane won the DJ category.

Both winners walk away with a one-year contract with the station, and will appear on shows to be announced in April 2023 when the station announces its new line-up. Each winner will receive a R10,000 cash prize and the voter who SMS’d the most  walks away with a R5,000 cash prize.  The competition, which has been running for 5 years, is an initiative by trufm, the biggest youth radio station in the Province. Trufm collaborated with Vodacom NXT LVL and local municipalities through various phases of the competition. A total of 88 897votes had been cast at the time of the announcement.

Ntombozuko Bhalintulo from East London finally succeeded after her second attempt. In 2019 she made it into the top two; the winner that year was Asive Sotashe who has been absorbed by the station. She made another attempt this year, auditioning in both East London and Queenstown to increase her chances of making it, which proved to be successful. She won the last leg of the competition with 5,400 votes,  and a total of 20 058 votes towards her overall success.

Masonwabe Memane, a club DJ in his own right, is a first-time entrant who wanted to increase his existing fanbase, skill and marketability. Memane has attended DJ workshops with trufm’s DJ Anda , which have assisted his development as a DJ.

This year’s truTalent competition received a total of 786 submissions following a two-year break between 2020 and 2021 due to Covid-19 restrictions. The station held audition in Peddie, Alice, Mdantsane, Ginsberg, Maclear, Queenstown, Mthatha, Bizana and Gqeberha. Eighteen finalists from each category were then selected to attend a radio workshop facilitated by industry experts in the field. The finalists got an opportunity to co-host with existing presenters to remain in the running for the top prize.

Business Manager, Loyiso Bala, said, “truTalent, opens up employment opportunities for the youth and further developing talented Eastern Capers.  Collaborations such as those with the local municipalities enabled even those who would not be able to travel for workshops to be included in the upskilling. Even the contestants that did not make it to the top, gained knowledge that they could use to try again next year.” Bala went on to congratulate the winners. “Not only did you guys put up a fight to showcase your talent, but you showed all of us that there is a marketer in each one of you”.

The station shared videos of the finalists sharing their experience of truTalent on their social media platforms @trufm on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Ends.

Issued on behalf of SABC Corporate

Media queries: Ms. Gugu Ntuli (Group Executive: Corporate Affairs and Marketing

NtuliGM@sabc.co.za / 071877 0513