Erin Bates
Gauteng
Erin Bates is an award-winning South African journalist with more than 12 years’ experience across television, radio, print and online news. Currently she presents the leading investigative television show Carte Blanche on M-Net. Her numerous beats include breaking news stories, high profile court cases, organised crime, education, foreign affairs, health, law and politics. Career highlights include the 25th AU Summit, 15th BRICS Summit, Oscar Pistorius trial, an exclusive interview with Sir Richard Branson, and the State Capture Inquiry.
Bates has written for Al Jazeera, Business Day, Daily Maverick, Financial Mail, News24 and Vrye Weekblad. Her writing portfolio includes editorials, legal features, news articles, opinion pieces and video scripts. Her packages have aired on Carte Blanche, eNCA, eNUUS, France24 and Newzroom Afrika. She has anchored primetime news on eNCA and Newzroom Afrika, and featured as a guest on local and international news platforms (among them 702, BBC Africa, CapeTalk, France24, India Today, Kaya FM, KykNET Verslag, LBC London and SABC News).
Her speaking engagements include an Old Mutual investment conference, guest lecturing journalism at the University of Stellenbosch and Wits University, and chairing book talks (including the Open Book Festival and Franschhoek Literary Festival). In 2022 she participated in the State Capture Conference at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) hosted by the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI) and the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (CASAC).
Bates is a recent alumnus of the Edward R. Murrow Program for Journalists, which forms part of the US State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP). She contributed to an insert awarded a Vodacom Journalist of the Year Award for the Western Cape in the politics category in October 2024. She is a member of the Cape Town Leadership Forum class of 2025.