Bridget Masinga

Miss South Africa runner-up, Popular Radio Host, TV Actor, Producer, MC, Public Speaker, Social Media Personality

Meet Bridget Masinga

Bridget Masinga is a woman of many talents. A Miss South Africa runner-up in 2002, she is a popular radio host, TV actor, producer, MC, public speaker, social media personality and fashion fundi. She holds a BA in Government and Development from the University of South Africa (UNISA) and is famous for her signature role in the TV show Generations. She became known as a champion of arts and culture through her daily radio show, The B-Side with Bridget Masinga, which aired on Kaya FM over several years.

One of the highlights of her career was broadcasting her show from the New York City Winter Jazzfest, one of the top jazz festivals in the world, in 2019. This came soon after nabbing an exclusive interview with Naomi Campbell and the founder of the Global Citizen movement, Hugh Evans, in the run-up to the Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100 in December 2018. The interview was a real feather in her cap as the event was not only being held to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s birth, it was also the first Global Citizen Festival to be hosted on African soil.

And her line-up back home included interviews with a long list of local celebrities, from Basetsana Kumalo, who has finally written a book about her extraordinary life, to the director of a new Shaka Zulu drama series, Teboho Mahlatsi. Other celebs in the hot seat included Creative Director Design Joburg, Donald Nxumalo and Zozibini Tunzi, our very own Miss Universe 2019.

The Durban-born beauty is also a sought-after model and has been the face of a number of top brands, including Levi’s, MTN and Edgars.

Her star as a media personality began rising in 2005 when, as the host of The Elevator, a pre-breakfast show on happening youth station YFM 99.2, her unique style of radio chatter earned her a dedicated following. And in 2006, she hit the small screen in the country’s most-watched and longest-running TV drama, Generations, playing the role of the controversial and challenging Zoe. In 2007, she also played the role of ‘rich girl’, Theresa Nyawose in the SABC 1 drama series, Bay of Plenty.

Many TV gigs followed, with Bridget moving on to host the music programmes Selekta and Beatlab on GO! before becoming the co-presenter of M-Net’s fast-paced quiz show, Temptations SA. Later she replaced Nicole Fox on The Movie Show and also hosted the first two seasons of the Mzanzi Magic reality series, The Road to Miss South Africa. In 2015, she was one of ten celebrity contestants on the eighth season of Strictly Come Dancing, partnering with professional dancer, Dennis Sifiso Maseko.

Since then, her main beat has been radio, with her becoming the host of Jacaranda FM’s weekly mid-morning show before moving on to Kaya FM. At Kaya, she was nominated for the Liberty Radio Awards for her initial show, Late Nights with Bridget Masinga, before taking over the prime midday slot, which focused on arts, culture and lifestyle. She has since joined the leading talk radio station, SAFM, and her show, The Art of Everything, won the award for the best nighttime show at the 2022 SA Radio Awards. Since the start of 2023, she presents a new show, The Full Circle with Bridget Masinga, which airs at 13h00 every weekday on SAFM.

She also finds time in her busy schedule to MC top events, which have included the Art and Culture Trust Awards (2017, 2018 and 2019), the DStv Delicious Fest (2017 and 2018), the BRICS Women’s Summit (2018), the Mbokodo Awards (2018), the Business and Arts South Africa Awards (2018) and the Nedbank Retail Awards (2019), among many others. In 2023, she was a judge for the second annual ANNA Award, a collaboration between ANNA and Latitudes Online that celebrates woman-identifying artists who show extraordinary originality, imagination and dedication to creative pursuits.

Now there’s an exciting new venture in the works – an online platform to promote South African arts and culture. Bridget intends to use this to raise awareness of all of the arts, to address issues like arts education and funding, and to advocate for arts development As a fervent supporter of the extraordinary range of talent in the country, there could be no one better to carry this very important torch.