From cleaner to broadcaster: Maimane swaps mop for mic

YOU see them everywhere. Street corners. Entrances to malls. Parking lots. Everywhere, they are there.

It is either a mother with a baby on her back — in scorching summer sun — who asks for “small change, please”.

Or a blind person — holding onto a helper’s arm in teethrattling winter cold — who says “God bless you” when your coins jingle in the tin container.

Everyone knows a beggar or two. Like the two old ladies who have been asking me for donations for a school since I first arrived in Rosebank almost two decades ago. It must be an imag- inary school.

Or the silver-tongued smooth talker who tags to the strings of your heart with an eye-misting tragic tale. It always ends with you involuntarily dipping your fingers in your pocket and part- ing with that last R50 note you were eager to exchange for some hot wings the morning after the hellish booze-soaked night before.

Then there are the aggressive ones who give you a “voetsek uyazitshela swayini” (you’re full of yourself, you swine) if you respond with a wave of the hands as he shoves his begging bowl in your face.

Don’t forget the entertainers who give light relief with their miming, acrobatics and juggling acts amid the hustle and bustle in the unforgivingly competitive concrete jungle that is Jozi.

Okay! Where are we going with this, just over 200 words later?

Welcome to the SABC sport studios. Your feet are stepping on the shiny concrete corridor floors. Not long ago that shine would have been a result of the toil and sweat of one soul who is a picture of indefatigability.

His name is Maimane, not Mmusi, but Tshepo Maimane.

His mop and broom have been replaced by a microphone. The floor he cleaned was a springboard for him to have his voice on the airwaves. That’s tenacity in motion, no?

His situation had put him at a certain station in life. Maimane, however, didn’t condemn himself to being a cleaner.

He commended himself to a commentator. His is a tale of a man who could have easily gone the begging route. Or worse, the crime route.

He shared his own story on SportAT10 with Thomas Mlambo on Wednesday night.

Maimane pulled himself up by the bootstraps.

Like Martin Luther King jr he had a dream. Like Mandoza he asked himself uzoyithola kanjani uhleli ekhoneni (You can’t win without hustling).

He has got more fire like Dj Sbu. So he kept cleaning and pushing and hustling and grinding and now he is broadcasting.

That’s perseverance personified. They say the way to a man’s heart is through the stomach. Maimane cleaned his way to the heart of SABC Sport boss lady Keletso Totlhanyo, who duly gave him a contract after several auditions.

Maimane, in his conversation with Mlambo, mentioned almost all the people — presenters, producers, directors and commentators — who helped him by name. That’s humility.

There are many clevers you meet. Awungifake daar Madala (organise a gig for me there).

They’ll rather stay in their corners than clean the floor. They want things but won’t lift a finger to make it happen.

Some choose the easy way out, commit crime to make a fast buck. Jail or death catches up. It always does.

Some choose to beg. I don’t know the circumstances that forces people to become beggars. What I know for sure is that in all of us resides a fighting spirit fuelled with dogged determination that can drive us to any great heights. We just have to find it. In Maimane, the SABC has a good story to tell. His time to shine on the airwaves is now.

The floor he cleaned was a springboard to have his voice on the airwaves We all have a fighting spirit fuelled with dogged determination

This column is taking a break and will be back next month