Lizma van Zyl

Lizma is a veteran radio news journalist and also the founder member of Smile 90.4FM, a commercial Cape Town radio station. She headed up the News and Talk Content division and is still a member of the Founders’ Board of Directors in South Africa.

Lizma’s radio career prior to Smile’s inception include the position of News Editor at Kfm 94.5 and freelance foreign correspondent for RSG. Her interest in local and international events and commitment to uncovering and telling human interest stories have taken her to exotic and often dangerous places such as the Russian base in the Antarctic (for which her coverage earned her an Artes award) and the Pakistan/Afghanistan border when former US president George W. Bush declared “war on terror”.

Lizma has compiled and read more than 13 000 news bulletins during her career as news editor and journalist and has also read Afrikaans television news bulletins in the early days of E-nuus. She has interviewed more than 15 000 people in the course of her career, ranging from flower sellers to statesmen.

Lizma is the presenter of and main content provider for the popular kykNET series, Hond se Gedagtes.

She is a freelance magazine writer as well as an ambassador for the Avela Foundation and the Eseltjiesrus Donkey Sanctuary.

She is an excellent communicator, used to being behind a microphone and camera and fluent in English and Afrikaans . (She can also hold her own in French.)

Lizma, is a former Western Province tennis player who has also competed overseas.

She is well-travelled and passionate about “reaching out”, “connecting” and giving a voice to the “voiceless”.

She lives by the motto: honour the process in pursuit of the outcome.

Lizma holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from Stellenbosch University where she also lectured for four years.