Janet Smith
Anand Naidoo spent his last night on a recent trip home to Johannesburg strolling
famously through his old haunt, the SABC. He went to see his mentor Chris Gibbons
presenting News Hour on SABC3, and came away impressed – and not a little nostalgic. News Hour is, after all, not quite the same as the news bulletins Naidoo used to present when he was one of South Africa’s top anchors. It has a sleek sense of style closer to that of CNN International, which wears the crown among the world’s newsgathering enterprises and which is now Naidoo’s employer in Atlanta.
He came back to South Africa, after nearly a year in the United States, to get married and take his bride Elaine Stirling and her young daughter Asha back to Atlanta. Now it is going to seem a lot more like home, he says. A lot more like he belongs. There will have to be time made for holidays and sightseeing. More time for Starbucks coffee in one of the fabulous bookstores. More time to explore a country that already clips neatly at the corners of Naidoo’s South African accent.
In local journalism circles, his achievement at being selected to work as a producer at CNN International’s headquarters and soon also to anchor news bulletins broadcast in countries all over the world is regarded as a singular coup. Not many South African
media workers get the chance to participate in a global operation. Far fewer will ever be observed by decision-makers and politicians in the highest echelons of the world’s
political economy.
Hey, says Naidoo, it’s not really that big a deal. He’s still the same man doing a job that he adores doing and finds unendingly interesting. He’s comfortable admitting that he has been exceptionally fortunate and says there are times when he is overwhelmed at the thought that anyone actually paid attention to the tapes he took – along with a severe dose of optimism – to CNN International in the US a couple of years ago.
It’s not that long since Naidoo was bringing the news about South Africa’s triumphant
1994 election to the country. Winding a path from print to electronic media to the TV service that dominates the world, the splendid trajectory of his career is pure inspiration.
Naidoo always credits his career upswing as having begun at Radio 702 under Gibbons,
who was then head of news. That newsroom, made up of a collection of young journalists
who revolutionised radio newsgathering in South Africa, has now been replaced with CNN’s, which contains people who speak 40 languages between them and whose expertise in the field has gained them a real credibility everywhere.
Naidoo has a genuine respect for CNN hosts Riz Khan, who presents the interactive talk show Q&A, and Jonathan Mann, news anchor and the face of the hard-hitting Insight
programme.
Naidoo’s job – which he says is inspired by the vast resource of talent and international
expertise in politics, the arts and the world’s economy at CNN – now encompasses
editing and anchoring news bulletins. South Africans can see him on air in the early mornings.