When people say “we’ve come a long way” I often wonder how long the journey was that brought them to that point. I’m loving the concept of context in my daily understanding of issues, problems and solutions. When a road is one thousand kilometres long, and you’ve travelled 400 kilometres, you may have gone a long way, but have you gone the distance?
I was recently watching an episode of Carte Blanche where Claire Mawisa interviewed Motshidisi Mohono on her journey of becoming a formidable rugby anchor on national television. I remember her during Lady Rugga and have previously heard her speak of her days on campus radio and later YFM, where she sculpted her craft and pursued her love of sports broadcasting. From a career perspective there can be no doubt that she’s invested the broadcast hours to make her a natural choice to anchor national rugby conversations.
One of her statements in the Carte Blanche inserts highlighted the fact we haven’t come far enough. In fact, in many ways the journey is only starting. Motshidisi said she works harder and pushes herself, because if she fails, she fails for all those who look like her, and that if she fails, she jeopardises their chances in the future.
What a sobering statement and WTF.
It’s 2023 and despite the rigours of live TV, the technicalities of rugby, the multiple presenting personalities and the obvious nerves of being a broadcaster, one of our finest sport presenters must still be concerned that her margin of error is smaller than the rest of those on screen with her, because she is the only black female reference point. We know it’s true. In fact, you can almost hear the leather lounge suite brigade, “ag shame, she’s never played the game”, “what kak is she talking” and other possible innuendos fuelled in the world of armchair supporters.
But dammit. Prove them wrong she does. Creating hope and opportunity for the next generation of black female presenters has become as second nature as has her skilful and insightful field-side inputs to the TV broadcast.
It is this kind of discussion that fuels the need for Woman’s month in South Africa. And it doesn’t only apply to the creative economy. How many female Uber drivers have collected you when you’ve booked a trip (in the hundreds of trips I’ve taken, my count is two). Single Moms are a norm, but single Dads are superheroes? Banyana Banyana were without contracts weeks before the World Cup, yet they get criticized for being difficult?
I’m fortunate to benefit from a leader who values all input and effort as equal. We need more of this. We need more candid discussion. We need more partnership and collective vision on gender parity. We need more recognition of female trailblazers and north stars; we need more Ministers and less Deputies. We need to know that she can, she is, and she will continue to thrive despite the challenges.
Women understand the proverb, if you want to go fast go alone, but if you want to go far go together. Choose your travel partner well if you want to go the distance!