Mahendra Raghunath! News Anchor for SABC3's main news bulletins. I've been wanting to get hold of him for ages so it was excellent finding myself welcomed to his new home in Randburg.
When I arrived he was busy-busy handymanning and putting up a trellidor. I went in, met his wife Arshnee, had some tea and biscuits, chatted and then got to the proper business of why I was there - to snoop around his fridge.
Double Door White Enamel
Tashi: How did you come to own this particular fridge?
Mahendra: This is an old fridge - it's got no freezer. We have a chest freezer. We got this fridge a couple of years ago. We got this when we were in Durban so it came up with us and once we do the kitchen up - it's going to be completely revamped - then this will probably be the bar fridge.
Tashi: The pictures on your fridge - that's your little boy?
Mahendra: Yes, Prashik - taken about a year ago.
Tashi: Your fridge is very organised looking.
Mahendra: The essential stuff is there - his school terms and things like that.
Tashi: Yes, it's all him-stuff.
Mahendra: Yes. And he tends to rearrange all the magnets around as he's getting taller.
*Fridge Opens*Supper After You
Tashi: So, you've got strawberries, cream - is this how it regularly looks?
Mahendra: Mmmmm - yes, it's a little understocked now because we're going away for a couple of days. We often entertain so this is why we have the chest freezer.
Tashi: When you're reading the news in the evenings - when do you have your supper?
Mahendra: When I come home. I have supper normally at about 21h30. I'm home by about nine after the 20h30 bulletin, have a short little unwind with my wife, then I have supper.
Tashi: Do you watch TV while you have supper?
Mahendra: Yes.
Tashi: What do you watch?
Mahendra: Sometimes the news.
Tashi: (
laughs).
Mahendra: We have the Asian bouquet on DSTV which has Bollywood and Indian stuff and they've got current affairs so I keep in touch with that part of the world. My wife watches a lot of the TV series and movies and things like that that are on.
Tashi: What time do you go to sleep?
Mahendra: Round about 11.
A Scotch Man
Tashi: If there was anything that you could keep in your fridge always - what would it be?
Mahendra: The gherkins would be one. The mustard which I often have with light meals - chicken burgers and stuff like that. Then I must have this - *takes out Nando's peri-peri sauce* - we have braai's and what this does is you just add a little bit - but not too much. I would say I like the Woolies lemonade.
Tashi: Why this lemonade in particular?
Mahendra: I like lemonade. This is probably the most easily available. You go to a Spar and you don't get always get this one. I like the taste. It's a plain, uncluttered sort of taste.
Tashi: Those Smirnoff Spins are one of my favourites. Is this what you drink?
Mahendra: Not often. I'm a Scotch man. These are for guests and many of them like this.
Tashi: How do you drink Scotch? I've never drunk it before.
Mahendra: A single malt with -
Tashi: Why didn't you offer me this?
Mahendra: Because I'm out of stock!
Tashi: You eat really healthily. There's nothing unhealthy in your fridge.
Arshnee: And everything's low fat.
Tashi: Yes - there's no chocolatey stuff.
Arshnee: No.
Tashi: In your freezer - is there ice cream?
Arshnee: Yes.
Tashi: It's interesting, because you're a drama sort of person - they don't normally eat healthily.
Mahendra: It's my wife's influence. I used to be very unhealthy because I kept such irregular hours and you're performing until late at night, grab a quick bite from a Chinese place or Steers - for a long time I was like that. In the old wild days, crawling home at 4am, starving -
Born To be WildTashi: So were you quite wild?
Mahendra: Yes. I actually enjoy going to watch live gigs. There was a time when I used to be at Kippies at the Market Theatre six nights a week - it couldn't be seven because they were closed on a Monday. In the eighties.
[In the eighties Mahendra studied drama and performance at Durban Westville University and graduated with an Honours Degree. He was a student activist campaigning against apartheid and most specifically the Education Act, which as you know closed places of study to people from particular race groups and divided students and the education they got according to their colour.
1987 to 1991/92 he spent in Johannesburg, lecturing at different educational institutions and in 1992-ish he returned to Durban Westville to do a thesis on Mzwakhe Mbuli. He is a praise poet Mahendra saw performing when he was out one night. Impressed with him Mahendra's followed his career, the socio-political effects he's had and his influences on rap and kwaito.
Mahendra's still working on this thesis because he didn't finish during the 90's. He met Arshnee, realised he needed to get a proper job, sent a tape to Lotus Radio Station and got hired. This is where his world of news began as he created news shows for them.
In 2000 he started working at the SABC on the team of writers who compile the news and towards the end of that year - when Tumi Makgabo went to CNN - he was asked to audition for her place and got it.]
Tashi: When is the last time you will have been with your fridge when we see you on TV?
Mahendra: Just before I leave to go to work - I grab a cold drink or something and take it with me to sip on the way. That's the last time.
Tashi: During the week - what time do you get to work?
Mahendra: At 10h30 to start working towards the one o'clock bulletin, then we do the early evening, then the 20h30.
Tashi: Once you've done the one o'clock what do you do?
Mahendra: We break for lunch, then we're back at the desk at two. We get briefed on the stories for the seven o'clock and we each get six or seven stories to look after or produce - you get all the information and pictures and do the editing. There's a whole team of us who write the news bulletins.
Tashi: So you might end up writing a story but not actually reading it yourself?
Mahendra: Yes.
The RussshTashi: The shirts and the clothes and the outfits. Where, how, who?
Mahendra: For a long time, news being news, they never really got their act together - when I first started the Tumi's used to receive a clothing allowance. It wasn't much - in the hundreds. I created my own style, I have particular taste in clothing and I wore my clothes.
Then I got a line in to a clothing range and we devised a contract that was suitable to both the SABC and them. We said "How much is a 5 minute credit at the end of the bulletin worth?" and they give us this in clothes. I had to do a lot of spadework myself. Eventually it came through.
Tashi: Do you choose them yourself?
Mahendra: Yes.
Tashi: Do you get to keep them?
Mahendra: We're working on that. I'm basically taking care of the clothes myself. First the sponsor said the clothing cannot leave the building and I said: "How am I gonna iron the clothes?" We work around those things.
They've given me five or six suits which I mix and match and play around with. I have a lot of freedom to choose what I'm wearing on the day. It helps my performance.
Tashi: And your hair? Who does your hair for you?
Mahendra: The make-up lady.
Tashi: Oh does she? 'Cause it's been through variations.
Mahendra: Yes. We've reached a kind of medium with this (demonstrates current hairstyle) because it looks solid. The original hairstyle - the first radical shift - that people were like really worried about and talking about -
Tashi: Ha! Yes, - people did talk about it. Was that your idea?
Mahendra: It was my idea. I was trying to move to this. I was trying to explain to the make-up people that this is what I want ultimately. So that was very experimental and because you have five or six different make-up people you never know who you're gonna get on the day and not all are good with hair. They're fantastic with make-up - with me it's not a lot, just some powder to kill the shine basically, but initially they were horrendous because they were experimenting with my face.
Tashi: Heh - what did they do?
Mahendra: I dunno - putting base and liner and it also became topics of conversation. Fortunately I had ammunition to take back to them because they thought they knew what they were doing.
Tashi: So you could say to them "Look at what they're saying - please sort me out".
Mahendra: In a sense - ja.
Tashi: Wouldn't you prefer to do it yourself?
Mahendra: You don't have the time.
*
Fridge closes*
Cut to Mahendra close-up: "I enjoy reading the news. I mean - today I'm not there and I miss it. I enjoy the adrenalin, the russssh."
*Slight tweak of the lips. Fade to black.*