Local resident celebrates winning Pendoring Commentator Award

Masemolele Jucwa, a resident from Ferndale, was named the first-ever winner of the Pendoring Indigenous Language Commentator Award at the Hollard Sport Industry Awards.

The SuperSport Xhosa rugby commentator picked up the inaugural award at a virtual event on November 25.
He said winning the award after just four years of doing the commentary was truly something special to him. “It means so much to me, because a few years ago when I was down and out, I was on the verge of giving up on my dream of being a commentator and just going back home,” he said.

The Pendoring Indigenous Language Commentator Award is a new addition to the annual Hollard Sport Industry Awards and celebrates the richness of South Africa’s indigenous languages.
The awards are set to recognise and pay tribute to those sports commentators who bring passion and excitement to the game, those who make the best calls, and those whose emotive anecdotes continually inspire and engage.
Hollard’s chief marketing officer, Heidi Brauer, said they love the inclusivity of the Pendoring Awards. “It was fantastic to be able to find a way to bring our two properties together in a way that promotes the richness of our indigenous languages, languages that don’t always get their place in the sun,” said Brauer.

Jucwa said it is a great creation because it is always beautiful seeing indigenous languages being celebrated. “It’s important that there is such an award to motivate all commentators in the indigenous commentary to strive to achieve more,” he said.
Jucwa held off the challenge of fellow commentators and nominees Maphale Moloi and Reginald Ndlovu who is also known as Mapentsela to be named the inaugural winner in this category.

Jucwa was discovered by SuperSport in 2017 in a commentator search competition. Before he won the competition, he was working as a sales agent at a financial group.
The 2021 Hollard Sport Industry Awards once again celebrated the ‘teams behind the teams’ within the business of sport, covering areas such as sponsorship, marketing, PR, virtual events, advertising, community investment, social media, production and branding.