Lerato Mbele is a South African

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

and broadcaster working for the BBC. Mbele currently presents ''Talking Business Africa'' for the network. She previously presented the '' Africa Business Report'' and ''

Newsday ''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and fo ...

''.

Early life

Mbele was born in

Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

and grew up in Pimville. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in politics and international relations from the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

and a master's in development studies from a university in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Career

Mbele began working for the

South African Broadcasting Corporation The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster in South Africa, and provides 19 radio stations ( AM/ FM) as well as six television broadcasts to the general public. It is one of the largest of South Africa's state ...

in 1999, rising to become an anchor for its programme ''News at Ten.'' In 2007 Mbele joined CNBC Africa at its launch as one of the channel's senior business presenters. While at CNBC she hosted regular programmes on the channel in addition to coverage of many other business events, such as the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

. In 2012 Mbele joined

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadc ...

to help launch and present ''

'' on the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the British Government through the Foreign Secretary's office. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception a ...

with Lawrence Pollard. The two presented from 6–8.30am (UK time) each weekday. Now she is the presenter of “Talking Business Africa” a lifestyle business show focusing on prominent entrepreneurs and their business mindset in the boardroom and on the factory floor, which Mbele explores alongside them for a hands on experience. She was also the long standing presenter for ''Africa Business Report'', a weekly programme that provided analyses on different sectors of the economy across African countries. It also featured leading business personalities from the African continent. Interviews by Mbele also appear on

BBC World News BBC World News is an international English-language pay television network, operated under the ''BBC Global News Limited'' division of the BBC, which is a public corporation of the UK government's Department for Digital, Culture, Media an ...

and on ''World Business Report''. In 2014 Mbele was named a Young Global Leader by the Switzerland based World Economic Forum, in the cohort selected that year.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mbele, Lerato BBC newsreaders and journalists BBC World Service presenters Living people Alumni of St Mary's School, Waverley Alumni of the University of London University of Cape Town alumni South African expatriates in the United Kingdom Year of birth missing (living people)