Bruce Ndlovu
BABONGILE Sikhonjwa wakes up at the crack of dawn.
This is something that he has always done since he took the reins of Skyz Metro’s Vuka Vuka Breakfast Show when the station went on air and became Bulawayo’s first commercial radio station. Waking up at that hour when the sun seems to shyly rise from wherever it rests beyond the horizon has become second nature to him. He goes through his daily routine.
After a bath he reads the news online, goes to his car and plays loud music and as the minutes move closer to 6AM he is on his way to the station’s studios at Pioneer House.
Perhaps driving up to the station’s studios Sikhonjwa does not realise the impact of a decision he made three weeks prior to that Thursday morning. Thursday marked exactly 21 days since Sikhonjwa announced that he was leaving the station to pursue other business interests.
The decision was abrupt and sudden, and ever since it was announced, it has felt like there was a collective gasp of surprise by radio listeners in Bulawayo.
Knowing Babongile Sikhonjwa, many thought it was a joke, an elaborate hoax by Skyz Metro in collaboration with its favourite son. So they waited and waited for a statement that would confirm that this was indeed a joke, a statement that would let the city breathe again. Alas, April Fools’ Day is a month away and both the station and Sikhonjwa had no intention of bringing it early this year.
It is not a joke. Sikhonjwa is leaving Skyz Metro. Sikhonjwa is aware of the pleas of fans like the woman at the door. Despite their pleas and tears, he has continued with life as if nothing has changed. The show has to go on and on his last day he is determined to give his listeners a show that they will never forget. In the first hour of the show, he is already in the mood, throwing jabs at members of Zifa, the country’s scandal-prone football association.
By the time his son appears for a visit during the second hour of the show, he seems to be sufficiently warmed up and ready to go for the main course. The Zifa scandal was appetising but he clearly hungers for me. Sikhonjwa is a funny man and a joke seems to be waiting at the end of every sentence.
His first interview of the day is with a lady, Ms Ncube, representing a local wholesaler. During the course of their discussion Sikhonjwa reveals that she is one of Bulawayo’s most famous shebeen queens.
Immediately he starts mentioning the names of the shebeen queens in the City of Kings. From Mpopoma to Gwabalanda and Sizinda they roll off his tongue. It is clear that Sikhonjwa knows a lot shebeens. But another thing is clear too. Sikhonjwa knows Bulawayo, from the highest corporate offices to places that operate in the shadows like the shebeens. This is another reason why he was so loved. Beyond the jokes, whenever Sikhonjwa was on air, listeners felt like they were listening to one of their own. He spoke to them. He spoke for them.
His guests on the first two hours of his last show, people representing corporate interests that advertise on the Vuka Vuka Breakfast Show, also seem downcast about the fact that he is leaving. Due to the connection that he has with listeners, Sikhonjwa is an advertiser’s darling.
But watching them in studio, the relationship seems to go beyond the advertisement of products that range from bread and biscuits to caskets and coffins.
They are comfortable with him and the jokes and fun go on even when the microphones are off. Near the end of the second hour Sikhonjwa, who is always active as his eyes dart from the two monitors that are in front of him, has received as many as 1 600 messages on WhatsApp.
Most of them are from people pleading with him not to leave the station. Again, he does not seem to notice their anguish. Celebrity guests also come to the studio to bid him farewell. Singers Jeys Marabini Cal_vin and Mamuza seem touched by Sikhonjwa’s departure.
By the last hour, there’s a procession of high profile figures bidding farewell to Sikhonjwa. TKP’s Sikhonjwa co-host, is directing the heavy traffic in the studio that was never meant to carry great numbers of people. One by one they come — rappers, maskandi artistes, imbube players and jazz acts. Some of them come bearing gifts and before long the studio is overflowing with champagne.
When the clock strikes 10 o’clock it is clear that the show will go beyond its allotted time. On this special day, in that special hour, even the news is not read. With everyone else gone, Skyz Metro presenters and workers start making their way to the studio. There’s barely enough space to breathe and various scents compete to perfume the air in the cramped studio. One by one they all say their farewells on air.
Sikhonjwa’s father, his arm in a sling, is the last one to speak and indeed he speaks like a parent that is there to bury his son.
“He is leaving this organisation with a heavy heart. But there’s nothing that I can do because he wants to follow his star. As to the direction where that star will lead him, I don’t know,” he said.
“Salanini zinini, sesiqonda emakhaya,” Majaivana sings.
As the song plays Sikhonjwa removes his headphones and steps away from the microphone.