Merafe ‘lucky’ to be working at a club she adores
Football has worked wonders for Orlando Pirates media officer Thandi Merafe, who considers herself very fortunate to be working at one of the biggest clubs in Africa.
Her love for the game started when she was young, playing alongside her brother. It was back then when she began to follow the Buccaneers, a team she loves with all her heart.
Merafe was helped by football to further her studies at Wits University, while captaining the university’s ladies team. Because of her love of football, Merafe finished her LLB course, but never went into that field, starting off as a supporters coordinator at Pirates, before Bucs chairman Irvin Khoza gave her the media officer job.
“I started out as a supporters coordinator, then the chairman gave me an opportunity to go to the UK to see how the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool and other clubs work. We looked at a number of things, not just communication, which was a huge aspect of it, we learned how things are and how the team is run professionally, maintain a professional standard. With that background, when the opportunity for media officer came up it was easy for me, even though it was not something I had studied because I did an LLB at Wits,” she said.
As a media officer, one of the major responsibilities for Merafe is to liaise with the media and setup interviews with players and coaches, but she says it is not only about the media making interview requests and granting them the opportunity, there are several aspects that need to be looked at first.
“You have to understand the responsibilities and my responsibility as a facilitator is getting an interview request from the media, ensuring that they happen, but it is not just a matter of getting a request and sending it through. You have look at their (a player’s) state of mental health, how they are playing and you have to weigh up those options before handing the player over to the media,” Merafe added.
“Also, I have to protect the players and in doing so I am also protecting the brand.”
Merafe further explains her role as a media officer, which also has to do with communicating with the club’s supporters on social media. She says the brand’s social media pages are growing every day and they recently opened Pirates TV on YouTube.
“Over the years we have managed to build the Pirates media team and have grown the brand from its current position to where we want to take it. I have been blessed with a very good team, from my direct manager Nkosana Khoza, who is our marketing manager,” she continues.
“We have one of the best digital teams in the country, we have one of the best social media accounts and the numbers are growing every day. We have now branched to Pirates TV which is on YouTube and it is doing quite well.”