TCB Media’s DrivenMotoring Editor, Lerato Matebese, joins the prestigious World Car Awards (WCOTY) Jury panel in 2021 competition.
The World Car Awards (WCOTY) is an automobile award selected by a jury of 82 international automotive journalists from 24 countries. Cars considered must be sold in at least five countries, on at least two continents prior to 1 January of the year of the award. The contest was inaugurated in 2003, and officially launched in January 2004.
According to the 2020 media report by leading research and analysis firm, Cision Insights, it is the number one awards programme of its kind, an acclaim it has held for the last eight consecutive years.
Lerato Matebese entered the motor industry at the beginning of 2006 as the then SAGMJ (South African Motoring Journalists) bursar student and in the process contributed to a vast number of motoring titles, comprising both magazines and newspapers.
From January 2007 to September 2018 Lerato was employed as a senior motoring writer for Business Day’s weekly motoring supplement, Motor News, a position he had held for just over 11 years.
Matebese joined TCB Media in October 2018 as editor of the premium motoring title, Drivenmagazine. Bringing with him a wealth of media automotive experience, he has been instrumental in growing Drivenmagazine, both in terms of reach and status.
He has been a SAGMJ South African Car of the Year Jury member for 8 years having served as an assistant for two years prior to that, and he has also been a juror for the Wesbank sponsored Cars.co.za awards for 2019 and 2020 respectively.
“It is truly an honour and privilege to be selected as one of the jury members of the WCOTY competition, representing Mzansi, and it is an opportunity I look forward to relish and cherish with due diligence. I’d like to thank the entire WCOTY Committee Directors for the opportunity, and more importantly my TCB Media colleagues for their unwavering support,” said Matebese.
Matebese is among a total of four South Africans to serve on the judging panel of the organisation, alongside highly respected automotive journalists Hannes Oosthuizen (Cars.co.za), Charleen Clarke (Freelance) and Brenwin Naidu (Sowetan Motoring and Sunday Times Lifestyle Motoring).
Wilhelm Loots, CEO of TCB Media added: “The company as a whole, and the Driven magazine team in particular, are exceptionally proud for our editor, Lerato Matebese, to serve as a jury member for the 2021 World Car of the Year Awards (WCOTY). Over the years, I have followed the WCOTY with keen interest, never thinking that one of ours would become a part of this prestigious international competition. I have every confidence that Lerato will serve the whole of South Africa with distinction, and we pledge him our full support.”
