About

Connecting consumers and corporates

Wendy Knowler is arguably South Africa’s most experienced consumer journalist. She’s helped more consumers over her 23 year career in consumer journalism than she can count.

But while known as a champion of consumer rights, Wendy is also known and respected by corporates for her fair, accurate and balanced reporting.

Wendy Knowler is also a radio journalist

About Wendy Knowler

Wendy embarked on her journalism career more than 30 years ago. During this time she’s covered politics, fashion and just about everything in between on a variety of media platforms. This includes a stint as a foreign correspondent, based in London in the mid-90s.

Since 1998, Wendy has specialised in consumer journalism, both in print for all South Africa’s major media groups, and on many radio stations. She currently presents weekly radio shows on Cape Talk (Consumer Talk with Pippa Hudson), 702 (Knowler Knows with Azania Mosaka and The Money Show with Bruce Whitfield) and East Coast Radio (Consumerwatch). Wendy writes the In Your Corner column for the Sunday Times Daily digital platform as well as the Daily Dispatch and Weekend Post. 

Wendy Knowler in action at an event
Wendy Knowler in action at an event

Wendy served on the board of the Ombudsman for Short-Term Insurance from 2010 to 2015, as a consumer representative, the last year as acting chairman. She currently serves on the board of the Ombudsman for Banking Services, South Africa.

Wendy Knowler is an accomplished public speaker. She speaks regularly to corporates, NGOs and consumer groups on the Consumer Protection Act, consumers’ legal rights as well as the less tangible factors  which shape the relationship between companies and their customers. Wendy also runs tailor-made customer service training workshops and webinars for corporates. 

Over the years, Wendy’s won a number of media awards for her consumer exposés, including numerous Vodacom Journalist of the Year awards and the national Petco (Plastic Recycling SA) Media Spotlight award 2019 for her impactful stories over the year on waste reduction, reuse & recycling.

Wendy has a lifelong love of cars. She’s test driven and reviewed cars for a number of publications for over 15 years. Wendy has also been on the judging panel for cars.co.za’s Car of the Year consumer awards since its inaugural event in 2016.

Wendy is interviewed by media outlets, including eNCA, on a regular basis as one of the foremost, go-to consumer experts in South Africa. 

What others say about Wendy

“Cars.co.za’s professional relationship with Wendy Knowler dates back to the birth of our annual Consumer Awards programme. Wendy’s track record as an experienced consumer journalist for many years prior made her stand out as a candidate, as she is so highly regarded in the three areas that are most important in our programme. These are: understanding consumers and their expectations, being highly experienced in the media space, and most importantly, understanding how expectations and demands have evolved in the era of social media.

“We have been privileged to work with Wendy on an on-going basis, as she regularly supplies us with very topical consumer-oriented content in addition to annually assisting with the Consumer Awards. Her insights into what drives consumer interactions with companies, gleaned from 2 decades of dealing with consumer complaints, from pre-social media/online shopping, to today, is incredibly valuable to a platform such as ours and, we believe, will be to any business or organisation which wishes to understand the modern consumer.”

– Hannes Oosthuizen CONSUMER EXPERIENCE MANAGER, cars.co.za

Below, listen to Wendy being interviewed by Good Things Guy Brent Lindeque on his JacPod podcast.