The sky is the limit for Zanele "Mazet" Chauke, who joined the recently established community radio station, Maxelo Radio. Maxelo (meaning "weather" in English) started broadcasting live from Extension B in Malamulele in February this year.
Mazet (26) hosts the Maxelo Drive show from 13:00 to 15:00, Monday to Friday, and is very excited and enthusiastic about her job at the radio station. "This is such a wonderful opportunity for me and others who did our learnership in radio production in July 2022. We were fortunate to have done our practice with our employer, Mandla Mchavi, who decided to establish a radio station as there was no community radio station in our area," she said.
Mazeet was born and raised in Muchipise village, near Malamulele, and completed her diploma in media studies at the University of Mpumalanga. She is currently doing her degree in criminal justice at the University of South Africa (Unisa).
She says she always had great admiration for Munghana Lonene FM's Swarisima host, Khensani Nyango. She hopes to one day become a seasoned presenter like Nyango and maybe end up working at the same radio station.
Maxelo Radio's station manager, Mr Mandla Mchavi, said he had come up with the idea to start a community radio station in Malamulele so that talented young people in their community could get an opportunity to prove themselves. "Community radio is where young and aspiring people can start a career in radio production. We are a young radio station, but we are already growing very quickly, having already accumulated over 15 000 listeners," he said.