Hassen receives hall of fame accolade
FAKIR Hassen started his career as a journalist for The Lenasia Times in the early 1980s before becoming the station manager of Radio Lotus in 1985.
He saw the station through from hourly broadcasts to a fully-fledged 24-hour broadcast station.
Over the years, he has authored seven books, wrote for several newspapers, including POST, as well as magazines and travelled the world.
“It’s truly a great honour just to be named among so many great names in history,” he said of his induction into the Liberty Radio Hall of Fame. “But also, a lot of the time, this sort of accolade comes after you have died, so it’s great to be honoured while I’m still here.”
On his time at Lotus, he said: “It was a very different time back then. We had a small team of just four people but they were all completely dedicated.
“Everything they did was in the interest of the community. It wasn’t about building your own personal brand.”
Hassen said there were many intricate challenges that he faced.
The acquisition of new music, for example, almost landed him in jail.
“At that time, we were still under apartheid and India was boycotting South Africa as a result. They had banned all exports to South Africa and that meant we could not buy music from them.
“But I didn’t know this. So I went to India, found this shop where there were over 200 LPs of new music and asked the shopkeeper for a copy of everything.
“He thought I was mad. When I showed him I could pay and that I was serious, he managed to get even more music for me.
“Then I went to the Post Office, because we didn’t have couriers back then, and tried to send it to myself in South Africa. That’s when the cops came and tried to arrest me.”
Hassen ditched the idea of posting them, opting to carry the cargo on his plane trip back.
“So what I did was, I removed my shoes from my luggage and put the records in my bag and hoped for the best.
“Four months later, after I had returned home, I was convinced I was never going to see those LPs. But then, after six months, I got a call from customs and I got the music.”
After a decade at Radio Lotus, the SABC deployed Hassen as head of the new School Radio programme.
“School Radio was a racist, propagandafilled system that the apartheid regime insisted on teaching. After 1994, all that changed. We needed a new, accurate and unbiased educational system and that’s where I came in.”
Through his efforts, Hassen managed to secure a local version of the children’s show Sesame Street (which many may know as Takalani Sesame).
Now semi-retired, Hassen, was asked if he missed his job.
“You know, the thing about radio is whether you listen or broadcast, you get to learn something new every day. I mean it provides you with huge opportunities to learn about life and people and your country.”
The previous inductees included Omar Essack, the chief executive of Broadcasting at Kagiso Media, veteran journalist Munadia Karaan, of Cape Town, who has since died, and poet and radio broadcaster, Safee Siddiqi (posthumous).