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	Isaac Mohamoe Mosounyana - He rides the airwaves like a black Mecedes Benz

What do your listeners know you as?

I was given the name "Black Merc" by my colleagues. It is the way I present my slot – they say I'm riding on the airwaves like a black Mercedes Benz.

Have you always been so smooth?

No I became "Black Merc" after joining the radio station in 2005. Actually before I became a presenter, I was a pastor at a church.

Is there much of a difference between being a pastor and a presenter?

At church it is all about moral issues and doctrines. In radio it is not about the spiritual. It is real. I deal with real people living real lives.

So, your radio show deals with that reality?

Yes. I present a current affairs programme called Mahlasedi A Letsatsi, which is Sotho for "enlightening one's community". I am based within a community dealing with the debilitating effects of apartheid.

What are the main problems?

You know apartheid left many black people in South Africa with no intellectual capability. I address this by dealing with pressing issues like high levels of crime, battering and raping of women, poverty and so forth. These are issues that continue to affect the growth and development of communities in South Africa.

And the role of women within the community is a serious issue?

Definitely. We are trying to change the way men perceive women because we still have this problem that most of our men see women as tools to be used in the house only. We are trying to show them that whatever we are able to do as men, women can also achieve.

So what is your own life like?

This much I know  In South Africa we are dreamers, we're achievers, and we don't lose hope that easily. I think that is what we have learnt from Nelson Mandela...

I'm a born-again Christian, and if I'm not at work I'm usually at home. I'm married so I give myself time for my family. If I am not with them, an assignment from the station might take me away from home.

I suppose this brings you into contact with your fans, do you get a lot of praise from them?

You know, whenever I have done something wrong they will come and criticise me, but the criticism is always constructive. Many of them are very happy with what I'm doing at the station. The problem is that politics dominates our society, and listeners think that because I address issues on the radio, I am automatically a councillor.

Would you like that role?

Not at all. It is not my position. These days in South Africa everyone is an amateur politician. I am not a councillor and I have to leave that role to the councillors.

Do your colleagues at Thetha FM agree with that?

The radio station is not political – we don't want to fight the government. We are the mouthpiece for people to speak to the government directly.

So, since apartheid has ended, have you seen a change in your community?

Yes, of course, and I think the station has played a tremendous role in terms of changing people's lives. In South Africa many people are still just blaming apartheid (for their problems) instead of waking up and realising we are in a democracy now, so I think we have made a great difference in empowering people.

And what about your life, what does the future hold for you?

South Africa's national radio station, the South African Broadcasting Corporation, is after me. They have approached me and said that one day they would like to see me working for them. I've been thinking about it and I'll be ready sooner or later.

The future sounds bright. Are you as hopeful for South Africa's future?

Yes, I'm very optimistic.

Is that not sometimes difficult when everyday you deal with the issues you have been talking about?

In South Africa we are dreamers, we're achievers, and we don't lose hope that easily. I think that is what we have learnt from Nelson Mandela that wherever you are today, you'll have further to go. We are making sure that, even if there are problems, we are facing the challenges in the hope that one day we will come to realise, as Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

Thetha FM broadcasts from Gauteng on 100.6 FM

This article appears in the October - December 2007 edition of BBC Focus on Africa Magazine.

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