Nikiwe Bikitsha
Lunch spot: Allora, Sandton
Nikiwe Bikitsha’s foray into journalism began in 1997 as junior reporter at a Cape Town radio station. It was a turbulent time and Bikitsha, a quick learner, soon made a name for herself covering an array of news and political stories. As one of the first journalists on the scene at the Planet Hollywood bombing, Bikitsha covered the story for international networks such as BBC and CNN. In 2000, she arrived in Johannesburg and worked her way through the ranks at a commercial radio station, becoming a news editor and hosting talk and current affairs shows. She covered local, national and international elections and secured an exclusive interview with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
In 2004, she followed President Thabo Mbeki around the country during the South African elections. In the same year, she joined SAfm as co-anchor with John Perlman of the highly regarded current affairs programme AM Live, broadcast from 5.30am to 9am. Bikitsha also began presenting SABC3’s Interface. Recent highlights have included the Schabir Shaik judgement, an interview with Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and coverage of the Jacob Zuma rape trial. Bikitsha has such a demanding work life that she spends any spare time — a rarity — with her family. She is an avid reader and relishes the opportunity to read for her own enjoyment as opposed to always being swamped with research reading for work purposes. She says that, when you have to wake up at 4am every morning, sleep is a rare commodity, so whenever the chance presents itself she enjoys nothing better than a good snooze.
Regan Thaw
Lunch spot: Rainbow Sushi, Norwood
Though he dreamed of becoming a firefighter-ninja-mercenary-rock star-cosmonaut with great hair and a sharp wit while growing up in Kimberley, Regan Thaw grew up to be a radio journalist at Talk Radio 702. He started his career at Rhodes University, where he worked at Rhodes Music Radio during the National Arts Festival. After completing his degree at Rhodes, Thaw joined Johannesburg-based radio station Talk Radio 702, where he has worked for well over six years. He has become an expert in conflict reporting and investigative journalism in radio and has covered natural disasters in Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan, and human disasters in Sudan. Thaw also covered elections in Zimbabwe and he has reported on miscellaneous events in Mozambique and Lesotho. He has also done reporting for other Primedia — owner of Talk Radio 702 — companies such as 94.7 Highveld Stereo, CapeTalk and Kfm. Thaw is a freelance music writer for youth magazine SL and contributes to a popular BBC programme called The World in Your Ears.
Bongani B Nxumalo
Lunch spot: Jonathan’s, Buccleuch; Doppio Zero, Bedfordview
Bongani B Nxumalo has won the heart of Jo’burg with his quirky traffic updates on 94.7 Highveld Stereo, but his true appeal lies in his husky voice. Listeners got a taste of his musical talents on the station’s morning drive show with the toothbrush tune, but Nxumalo had already taken the rest of the world by storm. He performed in Disney’s acclaimed musical The Lion King in Los Angeles for more than three years. He then swapped California for Hamburg, Germany, where he spent a year performing in the Dutch version of The Lion King, Der Koenig der Loewen. While in Los Angeles, Nxumalo shared the stage with acclaimed musicians such as Hugh Masekela, Jonathan Butler, Lebo M, Kirk Franklin and Donnie McClurkin. He moved back to South Africa to realise his dream of recording an album.
Mandy Wiener
Lunch spot: Rainbow Sushi, Norwood
Following up on her dreams to be the next MacGyver, Mandy Wiener works as a news reporter for Talk Radio 702. She cut her teeth on university radio at the former Rand Afrikaans University before joining Primedia at the end of 2004. Her first job in radio was writing the traffic for Highveld Stereo and her favourite music is the 702 news jingle. Wiener made the shortlist for this year’s Vodacom Journalist of the Year for her reporting on the deaths of toddlers Khensani Mitileni and Makgabo Matlala. She lists the highlights of her career so far as being in the Johannesburg High Court when Jacob Zuma was acquitted of rape and in the Pietermaritzburg High Court when the corruption case against him was struck from the roll. She also names spending several weeks in the volatile township of Khutsong as exhilarating, while the death of Matlala is a story she will not forget. Wiener was one of the first reporters on the scene when Mitileni was shot and killed during a cash-in-transit robbery.
Uveka Rangappa
Lunch spot: Coachman’s Inn or any place with good chicken wings
Uveka Rangappa is an afternoon-drive news anchor on Alex Jay’s show on 94.7 Highveld Stereo. She started her career at the SABC in 1996 and worked at the broadcaster for almost five years before moving on to anchor the morning news programme Newsbreak on Lotus FM until 2001. During this time, she also wrote a column for community newspaper Third Eye. In May 2001, Rangappa joined the East Coast Radio team in Durban. She served as morning anchor on Daryll Illbury’s breakfast show until March 2002. She also hosted a current affairs programme called Newswatch in Focus. After a year at East Coast Radio, she joined Talk Radio 702 as the drive-time news anchor on The David O’Sullivan Show. She also anchored breakfast news during the week on the morning show hosted by John Robbie. Among the stories she covered were features on post-war Iraq. Apart from her job at Highveld, she hosts Rights and Recourse, a live paralegal talk show with viewer interaction on SABC3.
Nontyatyambo Petros
Lunch spot: Tsunami Seafood Emporium, Rosebank
Nontyatyambo Petros is a commissioning editor at the Financial Mail. People often call her Ntyatyi, a tongue-saving trick she does not mind. She has an interesting pedigree: a black woman who went to the exclusive Mary Waters High School in Grahamstown before graduating in 1996 from Rhodes University with a joint honours degree in journalism and media studies and industrial sociology. She took a career detour after university, starting out as a copywriter with an advertising agency, followed by a stint at the National Research Foundation before entering the field of journalism. Petros joined Business Day in 2000 as an online news editor, then became a media reporter and finally a labour correspondent. She has presented papers at local and international conferences and, in 2002, took part in a United Nations Fellowship in New York. In 2004, she returned to Grahamstown to edit Grocott’s Mail, becoming one of the first women editors of a newspaper in South Africa. After two years, Petros was back in Johannesburg, as projects editor at Financial Mail, before taking up her current position. She loves reading and travelling.
Koketso Sachane
Lunch spot: Ocean Basket, Kloof Street
Koketso Sachane is a presenter with Heart 104.9FM in the Western Cape, but the popular radio personality started out as a volunteer on Bush Radio. An interest in current affairs and local history led him to producing discussion programmes. In June 2000, he moved to P4 Radio (now Heart 104.9FM) as a news anchor. He presented the evening talk show People of the Light before moving to the 12pm to 3pm slot. He is well liked for his strong views and outspokenness on radio. The proud father of a five-year-old is a firm believer that young South Africans should grab all the opportunities available and not rely on the government to provide. His ambition is to establish himself in business endeavours in which his diplomas in public relations, business management and journalism will come in handy.
Redi Direko
Lunch spot: Linger Longer, Sandton
Redi Direko is the presenter of The Redi Direko Show, broadcast on Talk Radio 702 in Johannesburg and 567 Cape Talk in Cape Town. She conducts in-depth interviews with newsmakers and provides live analysis and discussion on a range of socio-economic issues that are making news. She promotes and stimulates public debate, engages listeners and interviewees and guides the tone and content of the show. Direko is passionate about the evolution of South African society and relishes any opportunity to interact with South Africans from all walks of life. Born in 1978 in Orlando East, Soweto, Direko started out at Network Radio News in 1997 before moving to Kaya FM in 1998 as a news anchor. She joined the SABC in 2000, where she worked for four years on programmes such as Interface. In 2004, Direko tried her hand at government communication for a year before returning to the private sector. Last year, she was the presenter and producer of the show Rights and Recourse, and currently she pens a regular column for City Press.
Unathi Batyashe-Fillis
Lunch spot: Moyo’s, Melrose Arch; Nambitha, Soweto
Unathi Batyashe-Fillis is a Kimberlite who swopped her hometown for Johannesburg a few years ago — and how she has sparkled. She is currently a journalist at Highveld Stereo, but also reports for stablemate 702’s Eyewitness News. Before that, she was the co-anchor of a national government programme featuring the country’s ministers and leading politicians, during the opening of Parliament in 2005. Batyashe-Fillis, who began her career at the Diamond Fields Advertiser, presents and co-produces PSL Kings and is the voice behind SuperSport’s soccer programme Up the Bucs. Together with her husband, Denzil Fillis, she is involved in translating the works of Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho into Xhosa and Zulu. The couple has a five-month-old daughter, Khanyi.
Thomas Sipho Mlambo
Lunch spot: Yum, Greenside
Because of his accent, many people have trouble believing this SuperSport presenter was born at the Chris Hani Hospital in Soweto. He was informally adopted by his mother’s boss and grew up in Greenside as part of a big, multi-coloured family — and he only learned to speak Zulu at the age of 10. He started off studying law, but then answered an ad for a sports presenter in 1998. Bitten instantly by the television bug, he became SuperSport’s first black on-air presenter, working the graveyard shift. In 2000, Mlambo became the studio anchor for SuperSport’s coverage of the African Nations Cup. Since then, he has been the main anchor for all SuperSport’s football properties. He was also involved in the 2010 bid campaign and has interviewed most of world football’s major officials, stars and political leaders such as Sepp Blatter, the president of Fifa. He is the joint owner of production house Wildcam T&R and produces shows such as Up the Bucs, the official Orlando Pirates football club television show.
Africa Melane
Lunch spot: Madame Zingara’s, Cape Town
Africa Melane has been setting two alarm clocks for the past six months. That’s when he became a producer on 567 Cape Talk’s prime Breakfast Show. Despite having to forsake a little of his social life to hit the sack early, Melane keeps in touch and up to date. The young accountant-turned-media-personality will take you on about any topic, from rugby to Tantric breathing to the best home-cooked lamb shanks. Oh, and he has not forgotten how to juggle balance sheets either. Despite all this, the Guguletu-born Leo remains modest. It will take some prying before he admits to having featured in Leon Schuster’s blockbuster Mama Jack. From celluloid to the airwaves, Melane has also charmed the old school during the Solid Gold afternoons, simulcast on 567 Cape Talk and Talk Radio 702.
This social butterfly is also a social activist with a passion for HIV/Aids awareness education. For two and a half years, Melane held compulsory workshops for the University of Cape Town’s first-year health sciences students. He took the programme into local township communities at the request of youth groups and various churches. Lavish breakfasts are off the agenda, given his working hours, but food is still a priority. From cooking at home for friends and family to checking out the latest among Cape Town’s eateries, Melane likes to dig in.
Siki Mgabadeli
Lunch spot: Circle, Greenside
Siki Mgabadeli is passionate about economics. She anchors Business@10, Interface and In the Public Interest on SABC3. On radio, she anchors SAfm’s daily business programme Market Update and the Saturday edition of Weekend AM Live. After studying at Rhodes, she started her career in 2001 at the satellite business channel Summit TV as a reporter and part-time presenter. She left Summit TV to join the SABC as a producer and anchor on the public broadcaster’s evening business programme, Business Beat. Mgabadeli left the SABC to join e.tv as its morning news anchor on Morning Edition. She moved back to the SABC to sub-anchor the financial markets slot on Business Update. In April 2006, Mgabadeli was awarded the Telkom ICT Journalist of the Year award in the television category. She also received the Sanlam Financial Journalist of the Year in the television category in the same year.
Tsepiso Makwetla
Lunch spot: Kai Thai; The Meat Co; Trade Winds at the Hilton in Sandton
Tsepiso Makwetla is a co-anchor of SAfm’s AM Live flagship current affairs programme together with Jeremy Maggs. She presents the Sunday edition of Weekend AM Live, which includes in its three hours the popular Editors programme. The 30-year-old has almost 13 years of experience in broadcasting. She began her career in 1995 with a stint on community radio at Cani FM. She studied computer programming at Witwatersrand Technikon while receiving broadcast training at Talk Radio 702, and was approached by 94.7 Highveld Stereo in 1996 to work as a trainee reporter. She changed gear in 2001 and joined SABC3 TV news, co-hosted SABC Africa’s evening flagship current-affairs programme 60 Minutes Live in Africa before returning to SAfm. She is an ambassador for Differently Abled, an organisation that raises funds for those with different abilities.
Damon Stapleton
Lunch spot: Overflow, Greenside
Damon Stapleton is executive creative director at TBWA Hunt Lascaris and was formerly creative director at TBWA Gavin Reddy. He has a string of awards to his name, including the D&AD Yellow Pencil, One Show Pencils, Cannes Gold Lions, Pendoring Grand Prix, a Loerie Gold and the Loerie Grand Prix. He has worked on accounts such as Heineken, Nissan, Exclusive Books, Yfm, Jameson, BMW and the Apartheid Museum. Before joining TBWA Gavin Reddy, he spent six years as a photographer for publications such as British Vogue, the Face, Marie Claire and Elle. In addition to his photographic achievements, he has published short stories and magazine articles. Stapleton studied photography at Natal Technikon and film directing at Afda. Before all this, he attended about 15 schools around the world and is proud that he was only expelled twice.
Grant Nash
Lunch spot: Tashas, Atholl Square, Sandton
Grant Nash is a presenter at 94.7 Highveld Stereo. He started his career at the University of Pretoria campus radio station Tuks FM, where he worked until 2006. He was the co-presenter and producer of a talk show called Flush and also presented the sports programme The Touchline. He then became a presenter and producer on The Rock’n’Roll Morning Show on Tuesdays as well as the Drive Show in the afternoons. On Saturdays, he produced and presented the Tuks FM Top 40. In 2006, Nash moved to 94.7 Highveld Stereo and became a co-presenter and producer in the 7pm to 10pm slot, which is focused on the youth market. He also presents the Top8@8. Nash was once embarrassed by his domestic worker on radio and considers himself a killer Tetris player. When he is not appearing on radio, he lectures on radio broadcasting at the Boston Media House. He holds a bachelor’s degree in language from the University of Pretoria.