Lesley Musina defends Rapulana against attackers

The star is receiving a lot of flak 

By  | Jun 22, 2020, 01:44 PM  | Lesley Musina  | Drama

rapulane

Rapulana Seiphemo is one of South Africa's most prolific actors. Having done his fair share of blockbusters and series, the time had come for him to take the next step.

That next step took him to radio, Motsweding FM to be exact, where he's been given a Saturday breakfast slot alongside Sammy Fever and a Sunday evening slot between 9 and 12 pm.

via GIPHY

But not everyone is happy about the acting veteran's move to radio. The listeners of Motsweding FM have taken to social media to question his abilities as a radio presenter. 

It's gotten quite hectic that a close friend of his had to step into his rescue. Enter Lesley Musina who took to Instagram to ask the Motsweding FM listeners to give Rapulana a chance to ease into his new role. 

Part 1 This article about the change of presenter line up on Motsweding FM (SABC Setswana medium public radio station) was published on yesterday’s Daily Sun newspaper (Tuesday the 8th of May 2018) and brought to my attention by a friend. It would seem there some listeners and perhaps even staffers who are not entirely pleased with some of the new presenters, cutting of popular shows and the apparent high salaries they're allegedly earning, superceeding some of the station’s veterans and their poor use of the Setswana language. I’m not an expert in the Setswana language or any language for that matter or profess to speak any language with an excellent diction. I can only proud myself for having a good ear for languages and how quickly I can grasp and speak in different accents. I’m not perfect in any language including my own mother tongue, Tshivenḓa. My strength and to some extent, weakness when it comes to languages is that, I grew up in the mining town of Messina/Musina in Limpopo. The advantage is that people from there from an early age grow up being exposed and speaking various languages, which makes it a lot easier to later on in life pick up more languages and speak them well. The disadvantage though is that we also end up mixing all the languages we grew up speaking in order to form a sort of common colloquial language. Overtime this can develop into a language of its own and when you attempt speaking 1 particular language, your language or the use thereof would have certain traces and influences of other languages. Going to former Model C schools where we were only taught in English and Afrikaans didn’t do me any favours when it comes to my use of vernacular, I still work very hard to keep improving. I listen to various vernacular radio stations such as Motsweding FM, Thobela FM, Phalaphala FM, Ukhozi FM and Munghana Lonene FM to improve my use of all the beautiful languages used on these platforms. https://www.dailysun.co.za/News/Entertainment/listeners-not-happy-with-new-presenters-20180508

A post shared by Lesley Musina (@lesleymusina) on

Part 2 When I started at Muvhango for example, I was working with people who speak proper Tshivenḓa from Venḓa, so naturally, I struggled at first to express myself at their level. Eventually I figured, let me ask for assistance where I get stuck, and my Tshivenḓa got better and better. It’s still not perfect, however, I think it’s now at an acceptable level. Finally, when it comes to the new presenters on Motsweding, my plea to the listeners who may be disgruntled is that give them time to settle. Radio is the theatre of the mind, they’ll eventually start producing efficacy. I'm yet to listen to bra Raps and Refilwe, however, I’ve listened to Amon and he sounded good. Refilwe probably needs to devote herself in reading and speaking Setswana daily with people who speak the language properly. Bra Raps speaks good Setswana, this is also substantiated by my friends from Mahikeng. He’s a seasoned performer, entertainer and surely he’ll get used to radio technics. The views expressed above are my own personal views as a social commentator, lover, advocate and activist of our beautiful indigenous languages. https://www.dailysun.co.za/News/Entertainment/listeners-not-happy-with-new-presenters-20180508

A post shared by Lesley Musina (@lesleymusina) on

Should the listeners give Rapulana Seiphemo a chance to fit into his new role? Share your thoughts with us. 

Main image credit: twitter.com

Read more