Thebe Mabanga
Many South Africans will recall a debate held on national TV before the 1994 elections. The debate was between then state president FW de Klerk and then soon-to-be president Nelson Mandela. A panel of senior journalists was assembled to pose questions to the two leaders.
The first question, which ignited and set a tone for the proceedings, was posed by Tim Modise. The question was centred on the issue of crime, then in its formative stages of becoming a nemesis to a nation coming to grips with change. Reflecting on that moment, Modise notes how it was “very powerful, both professionally and personally”.
The moment represents a crucial step in a journey that has taken Modise to the hearts and minds of millions of South Africans. On Thursday he must have reflected on that moment when he became the inaugural recipient of the Reconciliation Award, presented by the Institute of Justice and Reconciliation.
“[The notion of reconciliation] is very heavy, especially in the context of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission: its unfinished business with reparations and controversy around amnesty. But this is an honour,” he says of a gesture to reward, in the institute’s words, “promoting understanding between South Africans through the Tim Modise Show [on SAfm]”. What the institution has not acknowledged is pioneering work done in talk radio before 1997, when he joined SAfm.
In 1990 Modise focused his energy as a Metro FM (then Radio Metro) presenter on talk radio, having been a hugely popular music presenter for five years before that. “I would still like to do that, if I have the time,” he says.
These were trying times for getting the black folk to engage in issues. “One of the things that I did,” and is still proud of, he might add, “was to put Mandela’s first public speech after his release on radio.”
An area that Modise struggled to establish as a regular feature of conversation was African politics, long before being African was in vogue. “I was a bit frustrated,” he says, “but that also gave me an opportunity to gain insight into how people think. It showed me that, as both individuals and a collective, people think of matters of self-interest.”
The need for a more engaging audience led Modise to accept an opportunity to “address English-speaking South Africans of all races on matters of national public interest” through a station like SAfm.
Since his leap of courage, he has become the listening choice among suburban housewives and decision makers in all spheres of society. He now reaches 150?000 listeners a day through his two radio slots. He has a column in the mass-circulation weekly City Press and, until the end of last year, anchored the TV show On Camera.
“I am not the kind of person who antagonises people for the sake of being controversial and attention-seeking,” he says. All very well, but what does he believe about reconciliation? “The most important thing is for blacks to get their act together,” he says.
Then, quoting black empowerment icon Don Ncube, he says: “Whereas the refrain was, in Steve Biko’s words, ‘Black men, you are on your own’, it has now changed to ‘Black men, you are your own worst enemy.'”
Modise believes, like union-boss-turned-businessman Cyril Ramaphosa and President Thabo Mbeki, that reconciliation has to be accompanied by an underlying radical change in black people’s socio-economic conditions.