Rorisang Thandekiso (born 9th August 1989) is a South African radio presenter, actress, public speaker, presenter, content producer, musician and singer. She is popular for being one half of the lively presenters on the weekend breakfast show Mzansi Insider, which airs on SABC1. She is also known as a former YOTV presenter and the lead vocalist for the band MuzArt, before they disbanded.
Rorisang Thandekiso is a disciplined, smart, and beautiful young woman whose life story is a huge inspiration to youths. Despite starting off as a young star, she has been able to remain relevant in the entertainment industry to date.
Rori, as she is fondly called, has made both easy and difficult choices that have contributed greatly to making her the strong, focused, and blessed lady that she is today. She is definitely someone you would want to know more about. This is because she has a very interesting and inspiring story.
Summary of Rorisang Thandekiso’s Biography
Full name: Rorisang Thandekiso
Gender: Female
Date of birth: 9th August 1989
Place of birth: Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa
Rorisang Thandekiso’s Age:33 years old
Ethnicity: African
Nationality: South African
Zodiac Sign: Leo
Sexual Orientation: Straight
Religion: Christianity
Marital Status: Unmarried
Occupation: Radio and Television Personality, Content Producer, Public Speaker
Rorisang Thandekiso’s Height in Inches: 5 foot 4 inches
Famous for: Mzansi Insider
Rorisang Thandekiso’s Instagram: rorisangt
Rorisang Thandekiso was Brought Up In Vaal Triangle, Johannesburg
The beautiful TV personality was born in Bloemfontein, Free State, on the 9th August 1989, but she was raised in Vaal Triangle, Johannesburg because her mother was working there. Rori has an older sister named Bokang and a younger brother, Ntlafatso. After leaving primary school, she attended high school at River Side High School and matriculated in 2008. A year later, she got accepted into the University of Pretoria, where she studied International Relations.
Although her siblings and family members are not known to have contributed directly to her current fame, they must have played a role in supporting her and teaching her some of the things she knows now. Rorisang Thandekiso currently enjoys a good relationship with her family and from her statements and posts on Instagram, you can tell that they are supportive of her too.
Her Interest In Public Speaking Was Picked During Her Primary School Days
In her final years in primary school, Rorisang Thandekiso was already involved in public speaking and debating. From an early age, she started cultivating, nurturing, and improving her public speaking skills. While in high school, she bagged a lot of achievements, especially in her final year. That year, 2008, her outstanding talent started receiving attention from high-class individuals in the business world. She received the award for Young Communicator of the Year by Anglo-American and Sowetan Newspaper.
That same year, she made South Africa proud in a debate summit held in the United States of America, where she represented the country in a Global Young Leaders Summit. Out of 400 participants from all over the world, Rorisang Thandekiso emerged in 3rd place, this was in her matric year in high school. Thandekiso proved that she was not just a South African champion, but an international winner as well.
In 2009, after receiving a scholarship from the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA), she proceeded to further her education at the University of Pretoria where she got accepted to study International Relations. While at the university, her work as a presenter did not stop as she was one of the most popular emcees and was anchoring major shows on campus.
In High School, Rorisang Thandekiso Became a Presenter of YoTV
Surprisingly, with all her talent in public speaking, Rorisang Thandekiso initially wanted to be a hairdresser and top model and had Naomi Campbell as her role model. Then again, she wanted to go into politics but finally landed in the entertainment industry at a very young age.
She became popular in 2008 when she joined YoTV as a kid presenter. Rori then joined the radio industry as a presenter at Touch Central (which is now called Touch HD). This was quite different from the TV presenter gig. As a radio presenter, it was a whole new game as she had to learn how to maintain a lively conversion with listeners she was not seeing.
In 2017, while working with Touch HD, she also worked with the Department of Transport on a live broadcast at Urban Brew Studios. According to Rorisang, her time at Touch HD was a season of growth and a time of learning the nitty-gritty of radio presentation. She admitted that the skills she learned in her time there have contributed to her success in her current jobs.
Radio and television stations in South Africa are not the only ones that have taken note of Rorisang’s talent. She is also a public relations officer for television shows in Nigeria and is a presenter for the 24-hour Christian music channel, One Gospel.
Rorisang Thandekiso Had Two Major Surgeries In 2019
Rorisang Thandekiso was diagnosed with endometriosis, cysts, and fibroids in 2019 and spent a long time at the hospital. This was a very challenging time for her, as she had to undergo two major surgeries within two weeks. Thankfully, she recovered and was able to return to her career.
Aside from physical healing, Rori also had to undergo mental healing as she was unable to work for almost two weeks after her last surgery and required the assistance of people to do several things. Before her surgeries in 2019, she had been having health challenges for four years and woke up every day struggling to live with pain.
In an interview, Rori said her health challenges in 2019 made her spend so much time indoors, it was like a rehearsal for the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. According to her, if the lockdown had happened before 2019, she would have probably lost her mind.
In 2020, She Landed Her Dream Job With Metro FM
Big companies and firms who couldn’t pay as many workers as they use to before the whole COVID-19 pandemic had to retrench a good number of workers. For instance, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) announced that 621 jobs were lost as a result of the pandemic. So, while a lot of people were thinking about the way forward after losing their jobs, the talented Rorisang Thandekiso was celebrating her new job at Metro FM to anchor a show dubbed ‘The Lift’.
Rorisang had always wanted to work at Metro FM, and it had been her desire to be a part of the team. When she finally got a job with the radio station, she shared her joy with her social media followers on Twitter, giving credit to the prayer-answering power of God.
She credits her time at Touch HD for helping her build, improve and polish her radio presentation skills, as the things she learned while working at Touch HD have helped her at Metro FM. She also works at SABC1 as a presenter on the breakfast show, Mzansi Insider.
Miss Thandekiso has worked for the following networks:
YoTV – Presenter
Touch HD – Presenter
Metro FM – Presenter
SABC1 – Presenter
Getting her dream job was not the only noteworthy thing that happened to Rorisang Thandekiso in 2020, she and her elder sister tested positive for the deadly Coronavirus. Her sister first tested positive with severe symptoms that almost took her life, after which she also tested positive but her symptoms were not as bad as her sisters. However, after days of quarantine and treatment, she recovered.
The Presenter Is Also A Musician, Actress, And Author
According to Rorisang Thandekiso, one of her former bosses warned her about being a jack of all trade and a master of none. This is obviously a piece of advice she has never been able to adhere to. Rorisang believes that there are so many people involved in a good number of things and have excelled in all of them. A good example of one such person is Boity Thulo, and Rori has made her peace with herself that she is that kind of person.
Aside from being successful as a radio presenter, Rorisang Thandekiso was also a lead vocalist with the popular MuzArt band where she was the only lady among four men. She didn’t just get into music because she wanted to venture into another aspect of the entertainment industry – she has a superb voice. That amazing voice you hear whenever you tune into her show on Metro FM also sounds as good when she sings.
It has been six years since the band uploaded a new song on their YouTube channel, but while they were active, they released the following songs:
Oh Yeah
Party After
Get Down
Jukebox
The Great I am
Not in the Mood
Sound Waves
Long long time
When asked during an interview in 2020 about what people should expect with regards to her music career, she said there will be a new song from MuzArt band or a debut solo from her. During the national COVID-19 lockdown, Rorisang and DJ Sumbody recorded a song titled ‘Lerato’.
On being a jack of all trade and trying to be a master of all, Rorisang is also an amazing actress. She has been featured in several movie productions like e.TV’s Mzansi Love and SABC1’s Stick and Stones. She was also a guest host in the TV programs The Bantu Hour, Mi Kasi Su Kasi, and Karektas.
Being involved in radio presentation, music, TV presentation, acting and singing is obviously a great deal and requires a lot of work and focus. Rorisang has been able to successfully manage all of that, but that is not all, she is also an author. Rorisang Thandekiso wrote a book titled ‘I Wish Someone Told Me.’ The book is aimed at encouraging readers and letting them know that they do not face challenges alone.
Recap Of Rorisang Thandekiso’s Achievements
In 2008, Anglo-American and Sowetan News gave her the award for Young Communicator.
In 2008, she came 3rd place out of 400 participants in a debate at the Youth Global Leadership Summit held in the US.
Rorisang became a presenter at YoTv in 2008 at about the age of 19.
In the same 2008, she was Seventeen magazine’s ‘Next Big Thing.’
She received a scholarship from PRASA in 2009, after which she got accepted to study International Relations at the University of Pretoria.
She is a presenter at the Christian gospel music channel, One Gospel.
Rorisang Thandekiso works closely with oil companies in Nigeria.
She was chosen as the Road Ambassador for Safety.
Rorisang landed a job at Metro FM in 2020.
She is the author of the book ‘I Wish Someone Told Me.’
Rori was also chosen as the head of Sundown Academy where she is in charge of charity programs.
What We Know About Her Personal Life
The beautiful and talented TV personality is not married and has not been open with information concerning who she is currently dating, which is something a lot of fans will want to know. In mid-2020, it was rumored that Rorisang Thandekiso was in a relationship with the sensational Nigerian award-winning gospel singer, Tim Godfrey. Both Godfrey and Rorisang’s fans were yearning to learn more after Tim Godfrey posted a picture of himself and Rori looking like an item.
This made a lot of Tim Godfrey’s fans think she was his lucky lady, but neither of them has come out to confirm or debunk the rumor, and until they do so, we can only say that Rorisang Thandekiso is a single lady.
Tim Godfrey is not the only person Rorisang has been rumored to be dating. The South Africa Idol winner, Musa Sukwene, who is a single father, has also been linked to her. Rori, however, has cleared the air, saying she was not in a relationship with Musa, and that they were both friends.
She went on to give fans a hint on the type of men she preferred. According to her, she likes men who are not in the entertainment industry, ruining the excitement of men who were not in the entertainment industry and may have had an interest in her by saying she was already in a relationship with someone. Judging from Rorisang’s statement about the kind of men she preferred to date, one can easily discard the rumor that she is in a relationship with Tim Godfrey because he is also in the entertainment industry.