When I returned to South Africa 30 years ago, my daughter Aura was barely 6 months old. I rejoined what was then Natal Newspapers. Aakash was a young reporter at Post, straight out of college, 20 years old. He was wildly enthusiastic about the craft of journalism — almost annoying so. In spite of this fact, I became quite fond of the young man, to the extent that I prank-called him one day pretending to be an annoyed newspaper reader. He was quite shaken for a while until he finally recognised my voice and breathed a sigh of relief.
It was five years later when we crossed paths again. I had joined eTV as Head of Corporate Affairs, and Aakash was heading up eTV News Durban bureau. Aakash, along with his cameraman Dave Coles, provided consistently good reporting out of their office in Ascot Park. (I believe the building is now part of a hospital.)
Good reporting was not unusual for the eTV team at the time. But in 2001, a disaster occurred which was to put Aakash on the map. A devastating earthquake struck Gujarat in India, 7.7 on the Richter scale, with its epicentre in Bhuj. The earthquake took the lives of 30 000 people, and hundreds of thousands were left homeless. South Africa sent a 31 member search and rescue team to Bhuj to assist in the relief efforts with funding from our Indian community and SAA. Aakash was sent to cover the disaster for eTV.
I remember standing in the control room at our Cape Town studios watching Aakash’s reporting from ground over the satellite link before we put it to air. It was powerful storytelling, highlighting the enormity of the tragedy with empathy and sensitivity, while at the same time, calling out some members of our search and rescue team for their insensitivity to the victims. I remember turning to my then boss, Quraysh Patel, and saying: “wow!”
I took over eTV news later that year after the events of September 11. One of my first projects was to begin the eTV news journalism training programme, and I roped in Aakash as a trainer. The training notes he produced were so good that I continue to use them to this day in my journalism lectures.
Two years later, we moved eTV’s head office to Johannesburg and the great San Reddy stepped down as Chief Anchor. I was quick to draw Aakash into that position and he became a familiar face to all South Africans 20 years ago sharing the screen with Debora Patta.
I remember an interesting story Aakash told me at the time; he was in Durban on holiday helping out his father at the factory and was covered with sawdust and dirt, and a guy came up to him saying: You’re Bramdeo’s son? You got a brother who works at eTV? Good looking fellow?
I left eTV end 2005 and Aakash did the same not long after. He became a news anchor at Summit TV before moving on to become senior assignments editor at the SABC.
We continued to maintain close contact, and in 2011, Aakash informed me that he had been offered the editorship of Post — which was the newspaper which published my first story back in 1980. Before accepting the job, Aakash picked my brain as to what he could do to make the paper relevant to a wider readership.
"Get a columnist who reflects the audience you're trying to attract," I said.
Shortly after accepting the position of editor, Aakash called me and asked, "when can you start?"
“What are you talking about?” I asked him.
“You said I should get a columnist who reflects the audience I’m trying to attract. That’s you. When can you start?”
I had been caught in my own net.
For the next three years, I wrote a column for Post called “View from the Top”, which reflected my view of the world as chief executive of the eTV group’s radio operations. Aakash was the best of editors, allowing me latitude to explore the most esoteric topics but with the good sense to call me out when I went too far off track.
He also had the foresight to bring on board my dearest friend, Ronnie Borain, on a part time basis. Post, under Aakash, steadily grew its readership and its revenue making it the best performing publication in the group.
Unsurprisingly, this success led to Aakash being offered a job I had often dreamed of in my early days as a journalist — editor of Sunday Tribune. I heaved a sigh of relief because my columnist duties at Post had taken up an extraordinary amount of my time, but I always responded to Aakash’s call when he would rope me in to offer commentary in the Tribune’s pages.
Then, in 2015, I was eating breakfast in Hyde Park, Johannesburg when Aakash called me to tell me that Ronnie Borain had died unexpectedly while on a pilgrimage to his sensei in Japan.
I wrote at the time that the death of Ronnie Borain was the greatest pain I had ever known. It still remains the case to this day.
But one of the greatest sources of strength for me at the time was the way Aakash stepped into the leadership role providing an anchor point for me and for Ronnie’s family. He hosted a memorial for Ronnie at Newspaper House, led the tributes to Ronnie in the pages of the Tribune, and — together with my late mentor Farook Khan — ensured that Ronnie’s funeral was handled in a way I believe Ronnie would have approved of.
Aakash left the Tribune to return to Post in 2019 where he continues to this day. Amidst plunging circulation of newspapers around the world, Post continues to hold its own under his leadership.
And so here we are today, 30 years after I met that annoyingly enthusiastic 20 year old.
Aakash, it has been a pleasure, and a privilege, to have been present for all of your remarkable journey from the start of your career. I’ve followed you obtaining your Licentiate in Speech and Drama from London’s Trinity College, a BA degree and an Honours degree in Politics from UNISA, the Clive Menell Fellowship at Duke University in North Carolina, and Vodacom Journalist of the year for News and Features in 2002.
But in spite of your many achievements, It is your underlying value as a decent human being that I most respect. You have an inherent sense of caring for your fellow human beings and I see this in your interactions every day. I’ve watched you raise Arik from the time he was born, playing a supportive and protective role, but allowing him to explore his own paths. And after the passing of your father, you’ve been a tower of strength to your mother who also celebrates a milestone birthday this year.
I have no further advice to offer you for the next 50 years of your life other than to remind you of your own words when you took over Post in 2011:
“Change is inevitable; growth is an option.’
Happy birthday.
