MOTSHIDISI MOHONO AND THE POWER SHIFT IN SPORT
Sport in South Africa is shifting – shaped by new voices, broader perspectives, and the undeniable rise of women stepping into spaces once closed to them. It is a transformation unfolding in real time, challenging long-held norms about who gets to speak, who gets to lead, and who gets to define the game.
And if there is a voice that captures this shift – steady, authoritative, and distinctly its own – it is Motshidisi Mohono.
Born and bred in the east rand in Katlehong, on any given day in the township, you’d find Motshidisi Mohono outside – in the streets, in motion, in the thick of childhood. Sport was never a grand ambition then, just something you did; however, for Mohono, it was a lifestyle. Netball in primary school, hockey in high school, another return to netball before matric. She laughs now about her brief attempt at athletics – “I didn’t have the stamina for it” – but there is something telling in that younger version of her: present, curious, always involved. The world she would eventually step into, bright studio lights, global tournaments, her voice carrying across continents – did not feel accessible back then. She watched shows like Jam Alley and Castle Loud , listened to the radio in the mornings, but never once thought this could be me. That life belonged to someone else. So, she chose a different path. A practical one. She was good at school, more than good – and by Grade 10 she had settled on Accounting. It made sense. It was stable. It was how she would take care of her family. The plan was clear, even if something deeper, quieter, was still forming. At UJ, that quiet instinct found its opening. In 2007, she auditioned for UJFM, hoping to become a DJ. It didn’t quite land. The station’s sound didn’t reflect her, and trying to mould herself into it felt forced. But then came a pivot – a chance to read the news. She took it, and something shifted. It turns out the groundwork had been laid long before. Her primary school English teacher had made watching the news compulsory, turning it into a weekly quiz. Mohono paid attention. She absorbed information every chance she got. She won. Now, standing behind a microphone, it all came back to her with a kind of ease you can’t manufacture. She began reading news on the breakfast show at the time. Soon after, she walked into auditions at YFM and found herself stepping into commercial radio. The distance between what once felt out of reach and what was now unfolding began to close. But the transition came at a cost. In her second year, the balancing act between campus life, academic pressure and a growing media career unravelled. She failed four out of five modules of her BCom Accounting degree. The scholarship she had relied on slipped away. Telling her parents was not easy. “I was having a terrible time,” she said quietly. “I struggled to a point where I failed four out of five modules at the end
FROM THE STREETS OF KATLEHONG TO THE WORLD’S BIGGEST SPORTING ARENAS, MOTSHIDISI MOHONO HAS BUILT A CAREER THAT FEELS BOTH HARD-EARNED AND DEEPLY PERSONAL. NOT BECAUSE IT WAS EASY, BUT BECAUSE SHE STAYED WITH IT AND WITH HERSELF EVERY STEP OF THE WAY. of our second semester. I remember I had to tell my parents I lost my scholarship which was difficult for me. I knew the next year I had to give 100% to work and 100% to my studies because I now had to pay for my tuition and so I couldn’t afford to not work and not complete my tuition at the same time,” she said. What followed was not a dramatic turnaround, but a steady, deliberate rebuilding. With her tuition now her responsibility, there was no room for half-measures. She had to commit fully to both her studies and her work. It was here that she learned, not in theory but in practice, what discipline really meant. And how unforgiving time can be when you don’t manage it well. University, she reflects, did something else too. It broke open the world she thought she knew. It introduced her to difference – in people, in perspectives, in possibility. It showed her just how much existed beyond the familiar, and how much of it she was capable of navigating. Those lessons followed her into the next chapter of her career. When she left YFM in 2011 and stepped into freelancing, there was no safety net. For seven years, she worked independently, managing her own finances, her taxes, her time. It was here that her Accounting degree revealed its quiet power. It gave her structure in a space that
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