Poet is living his dream as a broadcaster

Lilitha Ntsund­wani from Tsho­lom­nqa always wanted to be a news anchor for the pub­lic broad­caster. 

Last year he recor­ded him­self read­ing a rights of admis­sion notice at the SABC headquar­ters and signed off: “Soon, and very soon, I will be here.” 

Ntsund­wani has more than 60,000 followers on Tik­tok, with 500,000 likes.

Videos of the 23-year-old read­ing news bul­let­ins on Tik­tok trended online and caught the atten­tion of the right people. 

In Janu­ary, he received a call that would change his life — an offer to join the broadcaster. 

Now the poet, MC and pub­lic speaker — who describes him­self as a language enthu­si­ast — gets to write, produce and read news bul­let­ins for millions of view­ers.

Ntsund­wani, who was born in Tsho­lom­nqa and went to high school in Dutywa, said he never envi­sioned him­self any­where else but on the air­waves and on TV bring­ing South Afric­ans the latest head­lines.

“I did not know any­one at the SABC I could send my demos and my CV to, but I believed that one day I would be there and I was called.”

He pur­sued an engin­eer­ing degree after matric­u­lat­ing but could not com­plete his stud­ies due to fin­an­cial chal­lenges.

Last year, he atten­ded an event as a poet in Johan­nes­burg, which is when he vis­ited the SABC offices.

“Remem­ber you are not allowed to get in at the SABC unless you are an offi­cial. I went and recor­ded myself read­ing that notice and pos­ted it on my socials and signed it off say­ing ‘soon, and very soon, I will be here and will be able to enter’.”