Ina Opperman has been writing about consumer issues since 1986 and used her expertise as one of the founding members of the Gauteng Office of Consumer Affairs in 1996. She returned to journalism in 2001 when she became consumer editor at Beeld newspaper.
Working as a freelance journalist since 2009, Ina kept writing about her first passion, consumer issues, but also included writing about various business issues such as mining and digital transformation, as well as personal finance. She started working at The Citizen in 2020.
She says her passion for writing about consumer issues stems from the belief that everybody should have access to justice when they have a complaint and to have their consumer rights respected.
“However, it is firstly important for me that all consumers have enough information to make informed choices and that is what I am doing with my consumer and personal finance stories,” she says.
Ina holds an honours degree in consumer science from the North West University and a BA degree in languages from UJ (RAU).
She was awarded for her work on consumer issues by the SA Consumer Council, Checkers/Shoprite Award for Consumer Journalism, Citadel Words on Money and Sanlam Excellence in Financial Journalism.
She also won the Department of Trade and Industry Consumer Journalist of the Year twice and received the SABS Journalism Prize.
At The Citizen, Ina was awarded as the best journalist for the second half of 2024.
