News24 | The doctor will help you now: Wendy Knowler to get honorary degree from Rhodes

Wendy Knowler has held powerful institutions to account and given ordinary consumers a voice in disputes they would otherwise have had little chance of winning, says Rhodes University.

Storm Simpson/News24

• Rhodes University will award News24 consumer journalist Wendy Knowler an honorary Doctor of Laws in October.
• This is a recognition of nearly three decades of consumer journalism that held powerful institutions to account and gave ordinary South Africans a voice.
• Knowler’s reporting has driven real change, including by shifting how telecoms, banks and insurers disclose information, ending a non-recyclable additive in supermarket plastic bags, and reversing numerous insurance claim rejections.
• For more financial news, visit News24 Business.
  

Renowned consumer champion and News24 journalist Wendy Knowler will be awarded an honorary doctorate by Rhodes University next month.

The honorary Doctor of Laws will be conferred upon Knowler in recognition of her outstanding contribution to consumer journalism in South Africa.

“Over nearly three decades, her work has held powerful institutions to account and given ordinary consumers a voice in disputes they would otherwise have had little chance of winning,” the university said in a statement.

Hundreds of South Africans turn to Knowler for help every week. She takes their complaints straight to the companies involved, demanding answers and pushing for resolution. Over the years, her interventions have prompted many businesses to overhaul their policies and treat consumers better.

Her reporting has prompted shifts in how telecommunications companies, banks and insurers disclose information to their customers, ended an industry practice of adding a non-recyclable additive to supermarket plastic bags, and led a major network operator to stop marketing “uncapped” data contracts after she questioned the claim. She has also secured the reversal of many insurance claim rejections, sparing people a financial crisis, and in some cases preventing the loss of homes or cars.

Rhodes University

Born and raised in Durban, Knowler received a journalism diploma from Natal Technikon, now the Durban University of Technology.

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Her career started in 1985 at a Berea “knock-and-drop” newspaper, before she joined The Mercury two years later. She covered a range of different beats, from politics to fashion, for the newspaper, before spending time in London as a foreign correspondent for the Morning Group in the mid-1990s.

After returning to South Africa, she began writing a consumer column for The Mercury and the Daily News in 1998.

This quickly became syndicated and later led to appointments to cover consumer issues at other publications, including the Sunday Times. She also ventured into radio, and still presents weekly consumer segments, including on Cape Talk and 702. Knowler joined News24 in 2024.

When she began writing about consumer affairs in 1998, the word ‘consumer’ was barely part of everyday South African vocabulary. She has since turned a newspaper beat into a form of public service journalism that is accessible, fearless and rooted in the public good, and in doing so has shaped how a generation of journalists and citizens understand consumer rights.

Rhodes University

“Wendy is a national asset,” said News24 editor-in-chief Adriaan Basson. “It is wonderful that her commitment to customer justice and corporate fairness is acknowledged by such an esteemed institution. News24 is incredibly proud to be her journalistic home.”

Knowler said the doctorate was “an extraordinary and most unexpected honour”.

I am hugely grateful to the Senate and Council of Rhodes University for their recognition of my work – and more than a little stunned. On those inevitable days when the work seems overwhelming, the need to live up to this acknowledgement will be hugely motivating.

Wendy Knowler

Knowler will receive the degree at the Rhodes University graduation ceremony on 2 October.