Bio
Siki Mgabadeli is a South African financial journalist, television presenter and producer best known for anchoring a variety of television and radio shows for the SABC, including Business@10 on SABC3; and Market Update and Morning Talk on SAFM.
She is also known for anchoring the e.tv breakfast current affairs show Morning Edition.
She was, until 2009, senior business news anchor at CNBC Africa which airs in South Africa on DStv. She covered major African markets and participated at the World Economic Forum on Africa, the IBSA Editor’s Conference in India and the African Green Revolution Conference in Oslo, Norway.
Previously, Siki was Executive Producer – Economics Desk at the SABC.
Siki attained Bachelor of Journalism (hons) from Rhodes University, studying there from 1997-2000. Her major subjects were English, Economics, Television Journalism & Production and Economics Journalism. Her minor subjects were Politics, Psychology, Computer Aided Research and Reporting.
She started her career in January 2001 at the satellite business channel Summit TV, where she worked as a reporter, covering daily business and economic stories. She was also a part-time presenter on the channel.
While at Summit TV, she anchored African Business Tonight, a programme dedicated to business and markets in Africa, which aired across Africa sold by TV Africa and Summit TV.
She left Summit TV to join the SABC as a producer and anchor on the public broadcaster’s evening business programme, Business Beat. She also anchored and produced the business news on the SABC’s premier morning programme Morning Live for a few months.
She left the SABC to join e.tv as their morning news anchor on their 2-hour show Morning Edition, which covered current affairs, business and entertainment news.
The opportunity to sub-anchor the financial markets slot on the SABC’s Business Update, the only business-news programme on television that aired while the stock exchange was trading opened up. She was based at the JSE and spoke to traders and fund managers on issues affecting investors.
In August 2004, she became the anchor of Business Update, which was renamed News@1, adding African business news to the hour.
She also acted as a stand-in presenter on the SABC’s prime-time News@10 economics slot and anchored the special broadcasts of the Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee’s decisions on interest rates; as well as the Special broadcasts of the Minister of Finance’s tabling of the budget in parliament.
Siki’s radio experience started in 2004, when she started standing-in for Michael Coulson on SAFM’s Market Update. This programme targets South Africa’s captains of industry, investors and those who have an interest in the world of finance.
She took over as the main anchor of SAFM’s Market Update in April 2006.
She also hosted SAFM’s Saturday morning current affairs programme, Weekend AM Live on Saturday mornings, looking at each week’s main stories.
Siki is also a sought-after MC, having hosted government, business and award functions in South Africa. Some of the events she’s MC’d include the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Award of the Year, Discovery Health Awards, Department of Trade & Industry’s Technology Women In Business Awards, BankSETA Conference and Cisco’s Networkers’ Live Conference, among others.
She is also a panel discussion facilitator – she facilitated two panel discussions at the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town in June 2008. The topics were ...Taking Control of Global Partnerships and Corporate Global Citizenship - One Size Does Not Fit All.
She also hosted a 90-minute live television debate at the WEF on Africa, under the theme Investing in Africa: From Opportunity to Reality.
Siki also traveled to Oslo, Norway to facilitate a 90 minute panel discussion at the African Green Revolution Conference in August 2008. The theme was Empowering the African Entrepreneur – what is done to create the right climate for the small business owner in agriculture?
Siki facilitated a panel discussion at the CISCO Networkers Live conference in December 2008 in Johannesburg.
In April 2006, she was awarded the Telkom ICT Journalist of the Year award – TV News Category. This was for a series of interviews she did looking at how Africa and South Africa can bridge the digital divide.
In May 2006, she was awarded the Sanlam Financial Journalist of the Year: TV Category. This was for the Reserve Bank MPC broadcasts, as well as an insert on car prices, and a look at South Africa’s pension fund industry.
In 2009 she was the co-host and co-producer (with Nikiwe Bikitsha) of the SABC3 business magazine show Africa Inc., which investigated the complex issues that surround and drive the country's Black Economic Empowerment policies.
She was also the host of the controversial current affairs talk show The Big Debate, first on SABC2 and later - when the channel censored the programme - on eNCA.