Jubie Matlou
Who are … Tumi Makgabo, Charles Mogale and Jeremy Maggs?
For a woman who earns her living by talking, current affairs presenter Tumi Makgabo was surprisingly cagey about her prospects of joining Ted Turner’s Cable News Network (CNN).
For Makgabo (25), Atlanta beckons with not just the promise of life captured by Coca- Cola billboards, rather a challenge to go into the living rooms of millions of viewers throughout the world.
It is a far cry from Mamelodi, where the media personality started her education at Vulamehlo Primary, before moving to Loreto Convent, in Queenswood, Pretoria, for high school.
Makgabo’s rise through the media corporate world has been swift. She began work in radio at the now defunct Smart FM, before landing a job at Highveld Stereo and later Classic FM. She got exposure and publicity when she joined Telefun Quiz in 1995, and later as a host for a television women’s programme, Lebone.
She boasts a good command of several languages, including Afrikaans. But for a woman who is supposed to have the gift of the gab, Makgabo’s replies are rather curt. When asked why she chose a career in media, she said, “I found radio and television very exciting.”
Makgabo said she has no idea of what Atlanta looks like, and as a result she is not in a position to say if she will settle permanently. “I don’t know what’s waiting for me on the other side, I don’t know what’s going to happen when I get there. But I always say to people that I would choose to come back home after spending some time in Atlanta.”
She said she expects her new job to be very challenging, and she “would take things as they come”. Makgabo is taking her Norwegian husband, businessman Vegard Fiskerstrand, and their three kids along.
Charles Mogale assumes the reins of editor at Sunday World, a move viewed by many in black media circles as intended to “bring about stability and order in a newsroom run by young lions”. And, in typical “struggle” lexicon, his mission includes “channelling youth energy and emotions in the right direction”.
Mogale joins Sunday World after the resignations of several senior reporters – and the newspaper’s first editor, Fred Khumalo – over differences about the paper’s target market. The resignations, which came a few months after the paper hit the streets, sent shock waves through black media circles. Since its inception, the paper was viewed as a first, to provide and entrust the leadership of such an important media institution to the hands of those “young, gifted and black”.
“It was a mistake for Sunday World to target the sophisticated black educated elite exclusively. The new approach seeks to broaden the net, target everybody, fish where the fish are. Target your average guy travelling in a taxi, become more entertaining without becoming trivial,” said Mogale.
He draws a parallel between Sunday World’s old approach with the demise of the alternative press after the inauguration of a democratic order in the country. “Some titles refused to change with the times, to adapt to changes in the market. There was no longer a need to continue to be angry and agitate. Ultimately, those papers had to fold because they refused to acknowledge that there was another world beyond that of politics,” Mogale said.
Mogale was born and bred in the Vaal township of Evaton. His dad wanted him to become a medical doctor, but when a stint at a Pretoria technikon did not work out, Mogale was drawn into the South African Associated Newspapers cadet school. Since those days in the late 1970s, he has worked for The Post, the Sowetan, New Nation, the Botswana Guardian and City Press.
Jeremy Maggs joins The Citizen as news editor. However, he will continue presenting his radio and television shows. His appointment is seen as part of the transformation to convert the paper from a conservative replica of a wire service to a competitive newspaper that would take on The Star and Sowetan.
The concept of multimedia could be applied to Maggs, who has been able to straddle newspapers, radio and television with confidence. Maggs began his career in Eastern Cape newspapers after graduating from the Natal Technikon. The Watergate scandal left an indelible impression on the young Maggs, and made him decide on a career in news media.
He got into radio by chance – he saw the opportunity to join Radio 702 as a chance to end homesickness by relocating from the Eastern Cape to Johannesburg. “I have a love affair with print media. People have written off newspapers and magazines; I think these are important for a country like South Africa – a country undergoing transformation. The print media has a critical role in imparting information and educating people,” said Maggs.
Maggs said changes at Radio 702 made him consider other media avenues, such as television presentation, that included the morning television programme, AM2day. He believes in media synergy, in which newspapers, radio and television complement each other.
Maggs grew up in Johannesburg, and went to Sandown High School before embarking on a journey to become a journalist.