Liezel Van Der Westhuizen

Liezel Van Der Westhuizen, In 2010, Liezel was asked to present SABC 3’s new breakfast show Expresso, live weekday mornings from 5:30-7:30. This show saw her move to Cape Town, where she currently lives and is also currently a presenter on 94.5KFM.

She may be have been a new face for Season 5 of MNET Idols and only the second woman in the world to present Idols, but Liezel van der Westhuizen has only been working in the home-grown entertainment industry for 2years, starting out on TV as an SABC 3 continuity presenter as well as the presenter of SABC 3’s live lunchtime talk show – Lunchbox.

Liezel Van Der Westhuizen is also a presenter on Jacaranda 94.2. It was on the latter station that Liezel’s ability to reach audiences, with her finely tuned, warm and hugely likeable presenting skills, earned her a strong following amongst the province’s radio listeners. “I began my radio life at Tuks FM and was well and truly hooked on the joys of being able to use media to connect with people,” she says.

It’s no surprise that Liezel is so at ease when talking to an audience: this Pretoria raised-girl has a Masters Degree in Communication Management from the University of Pretoria and, since 2000, has been a member of Toastmasters International, having received her Advanced Toastmaster Bronze certificate in 2005.

“I’ve always loved speaking in public and conveying my point of view to a broad audience,” Liezel says of her Toastmaster experience. In fact so committed is she to the benefits of this form of communication that last year she taught public speaking and communication at Abraham Kriel Childrens Home as a volunteer. “I’m passionate about young South Africans being able to stand up and speak, confidently and with knowledge, about the issues that move them,” Liezel says simply. And in addition to her Toastmasters experience, Liezel is a recognised voiceover artist, having done an array of television and radio voiceover work.

That Liezel is so focused on her own passions is entirely consistent with her personality: after all, this is a woman who, as a learner at Pretoria Girls never once missed a day of school, in her entire 12 years spent in the education system!

In fact, Liezel is no slouch when it comes to the other pursuits that she can’t live without: sport and health. “I train five days a week and follow a very healthy lifestyle. And I’m crazy about golf!” That – and swimming, running, cycling, spinning and scuba-diving! It’s a head-spinning array of physical passions that, when combined with Liezel’s model-looks make it easy to see why she was a Top 8 finalist in the 2007 Shape magazine Sanex Cover Girl competition.