THATO MOENG: Game changer, third generation

Mail & Guardian

09-05-2025

A solid foundation: Thato Moeng. Photo: Richard Townsend
Before she ever stepped into a studio or sat behind a desk, sports journalist and presenter Thato Moeng inherited a legacy stitched into every part of her life.
''I look up to my mother, and my grandmother,' she explains. 'I think when it comes to money, especially as a black female, it's really touch and go, because we've seen our mothers really struggle trying to keep up households with four children.'
'That was my mother, and she had to juggle a lot, but she managed to somehow pull a buck out of somewhere, right, and take all of us to school.'
It's this lineage of resourceful women who turned little into plenty that inspired Thato's solid foundation when it comes to money.
'My grandmother is a business woman, and she used to make uniforms for the local school. She also made wedding dresses for people in Pretoria. She taught me not to put your money under a mattress … there are better ways to save it.'
These were her first glimpses of what economic contribution looks like when it's powered by women — quiet, consistent, and critical.
Today, Thato is one of South Africa's most respected sports journalists — a bold voice in an industry still catching up to women's brilliance. When she started out as a political journalist, it never occurred to her that she could cover sports.
'There were very few female role models in the field. It was such a male-dominated industry. I was one of very few females at a press conference full of men. It was only much later when I had articles written about me referring to me as the 'first black female sports journalist or presenter' that I realised the gap.'
Fortunately, that picture did begin to change. And these female sports journalists are friendly, which Thato says 'goes against this myth that women are competitive and don't support each other'.
As a mother of a ten-year-old daughter, Thato is proud that her child 'has grown with me within this career. She can see my passion and actually see that as a female, you really do have to have a certain kind of dedication.'
'Sports is about so much more than the scoreboard,' she says. 'It's in every South African's DNA. It's about people. That's what I try to bring into everything I do.'
And often, those people are women: whether they are players, supporters or the mothers who make early-morning practices possible.
Thato says that it was while reporting from the Two Oceans Marathon that she noticed a phenomenon: 'It's the moms on the sidelines who are crying for everybody, you know, all the moms cheering, all moms are the same.'
Moms like hers, and her grandmother, who are shaping the economy from home, child by child.
'My grandmother actually sewed my wedding dress,' Thato adds. It represented her love and her sacrifices, and the lessons that Thato is passing on to her own daughter.
From her grandmother's sewing machine to her mother's kitchen table, to the studio or sports field where she commands attention, Thato Moeng is proof that generations of strong women can build a stronger economy.