1. Travelling The Continent

 

 

I grew up in Johannesburg as any other typical boy in a medium class home. I did all the kids things like playing sport and having fun. I finished high school in 1999 and went to Pretoria Technicon after I received a bursary to study Horticulture. I really wanted to work in the sun and not in an office.

 

This however didn't last long as the travelling to Pretoria everyday took it's toll on me, missing practical buses after being stuck in the crazy traffic that could make me sit on the highway for hours. I spotted a notice on one of the noticeboards and there was a company looking for an intern to train-up in satellite news gathering and live sports broadcasting. This sounded incredible to me!

 

 

I applied, went through a few rounds of interviews and was hired along with another guy who was studying at UJ (RAU at the time). I then spent a year or two shadowing engineers on maintenance projects, assisting on SNG and OB's, installing remote feed sites, and learning where I could.

 

I was eventually let off the leash around 3 years in, and got to start travelling South Africa on my own, eventually travelling to all sorts of countries around Africa, spending weeks away at a time, and broadcasting live sport or breaking news, to just about every broadcaster under the sun, including a few like the BBC, Sky News, CNN, Reuters, APTN, Octagon, Supersport and so many more.

 

Excuse the name drops and we’ll leave it there, but follow the story in the next post.