Gladys Sithole Leaves ANN7, Becomes Hot 91.9fm's Head of News

Gladys Sithole has this past week announced that she was leaving ANN7.

Announcing her departure, Sithole tweeted, "What is the meaning of life if one doesn't explore the part of it that brings about challenges, experience and great responsibility? With that said, it is with great sadness that I inform all my friends and fans that this is my last week at @ANN7tv #ANN7 💞 Life has presented me with an opportunity which I at 1st didn't think I was worthy of, but have since gotten used to the idea #God"

Sithole had been with ANN7 since inception, when she was one of the many now infamous models who were given the opportunity to tryout for a permanent position at the channel. Prior to joining ANN7, Gladys was seen on television as one of the 'vixens' Vuzu's now long cancelled show titled Vixens.

She was one of very few of the models that tried out with ANN7 that actually got appointed. Others include now former ANN7 Prime anchor, Nzinga Qunta, and current Vuka Africa anchor, Abigail Visagie.

Gladys has anchored different slots for the channel, including stints as Weekend Prime anchor (a position everyone seems to hold prior to going on to greater things), before moving to weekday afternoons and then to anchoring the continental bulletin, Africa Tonight, where she truly shone (shined? Shown?). As anchor of Africa Tonight, Sithole also acted as the channel's main reporter for the AU Summit held in Johannesburg earlier this year, excellently covering the drama surrounding Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir.

She was also always the the channel's main fill in anchor for ANN7 Prime, though for some reason whenever the main anchor of the bulletin left, Sithole was never promoted to that position.

Sithole joined Hot 91.9fm since the Johannesburg-based community radio station started in November last year. There, under the leadership of the excellent Marc Chase, she read the midday news report and earlier this year won big at the 2015 MTN Radio Awards.

Now she is being promoted to the radio station's head of news. Yip. From model to head of news. Hard work certainly pays off. This is why I no longer just dismiss it when ANN7 decides to bring in another model. They might be another Gladys Sithole.

Gladys held a farewell dinner for herself on Friday night (as everyone does when they leave ANN7), which was attended by the likes of senior reporter, Kalden Ongmu, 'GameOn!' presenter, Mahreen Chenia, and current ANN7 Prime anchor, Sebenzile Nkambule.


Gladys Sithole's last day with ANN7 was Thursday October 8th.

Gladys Sithole Wins Big at the MTN Radio Awards

Gladys Sithole along with Marc Chase at the 2015 MTN Radio Awards

Gladys Sithole, currently the host of ANN7's Africa Tonight, took home the award of 'Best Newsreader: Community' at the 2015 MTN Radio Awards this past Saturday, April 19th.

The award is for work she has been doing at the recently launched Hot 91.9fm where she has been a newsreader under the mentorship of the excellent Marc Chase (himself a TV news guy at eTV's Sunrise), whom she thanked in an emotional post on Instagram after the awards ceremony.

Gladys Sithole Went From
Vixen To Excellent Newsreader

Her work at Hot 91.9fm is not her first work on radio, however. She was also newsreader at the University of Johannesburg's radio team whilst studying a BA in Psychology there.

Prior to joining ANN7, which she has been part of in different roles since the channel's inception, she was one of the contestants on Vuzu's now long cancelled controversial and unsavoury reality show, Vixens.

She joined ANN7 back in 2013 and was one of the over 20 models given the chance to be newsrea
ders, many of whom ended up as Youtube stars for their uhm, stumbles during those trials.

If you watch an episode of Africa Tonight on ANN7 especially with the xenophobic situation currently seen in South Africa,no one would know that Gladys has only been doing this kind of thing for just over a year nor that she is not even a journo by degree. Seeing her grow as a news anchor is why I don't really mind models making the jump to a journalistic like role (though I do dislike it if they enter shows like Big Brother and Top Actor whilst expecting to be taken seriously as a news anchor).

But then again, not everyone has that ability to make the transition like she did. As she said in an interview to  TVSA back in 2010, "I excel in all I do and look damn good when doing it." It's going to be interesting to see this young news anchor continue to grow in an age when many young people are just not that interested in the news.

A full list of all the winners at the 2015 MTN Radio Awards can be found here