New York, Here I Come

Broadcast queen Redi Tlhabi has said goodbye to 702 and is heading to America with her family to take up a fellowship

- Gabisile Ngcobo

SHE rushes into the restaurant, giant coffee cup in hand, and apologises for being a few minutes late.

Life has been a whirlwind since she hung up her microphone at talk radio station 702 after 12 years on air and everybody’s been wanting a piece of her.

“Thank heavens for coffee,” Redi Tlhabi says, taking a sip. “I need two cups back-to-back before I start thinking!”

Eyes across the eatery in Hyde Park, Johannesburg, swivel towards her as she settles down. She might be a radio star but after all these years in the game her face is as recognisable as her voice.

The feisty broadcaster’s many fans were heartbroken when she announced she was leaving the station to take up a fellowship in the United States. On her last day her name trended on Twitter for hours and even the EFF and the ANC released statements bidding her farewell and praising her work. DA leader Mmusi Maimane sent her a private message.

Her career has been quite a ride, Redi (39) says. “I said to my bosses at 702, ‘You know, in all the years I’ve been here I’ve never woken up and felt like doing something else’.”

But, happy as she was, she felt restless in the past two years. “I kept thinking, ‘What else is out there? What else can I do? This can’t be the end of my journey’.”

Receiving her long-service award in 2015 after 10 years with the station triggered a change in her mindset. “I was taken aback – the years had gone by so quickly. I was freaked out, traumatised! I knew I couldn’t be where I was for another 10 years.”

She could have hung in for a few more years if she were a little younger, she adds. But the big four-o is looming next year and she worried it might be too late to do all the things she wants to do.

And so a whole new chapter begins.