THOMAS BELIEVES IN TALENT BEFORE EVERYTHING
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Thomas Raphote : Voice of Tembisa
THOMAS BELIEVES IN TALENT BEFORE EVERYTHING
Thomas Mohlolo Raphote , famously known as ‘ Bones ’, is a 42-year-old sports presenter at a community radio station Voice of Tembisa FM ( VOT FM ). Thomas was born and bred in Tembisa . With this year being his 14th year in radio , Raphote ’ s journey began in 2004 at a community radio station called Tembisa Info Radio , where he worked for four years . In 2008 , he started working at VOT FM as a producer , then later started his presenting career as a sports and current affairs presenter . He is the presenter of a sports show called Sports Corner on Fridays from 6pm to 7pm with a lady named Molebogeng Lebea . “ I enjoy sports presenting because I am educating and informing people of what is going on in the world of sports , which is something I love ,” says Raphote . He believes that to present sports , one needs to be well-informed about it because people out there depend on you for information regarding sports . He also explained that : “ At Voice of Tembisa FM , the dominating sports they present about is football which makes 60 % of the content and includes local soccer . It is challenging to present about other sports because of limited resources , but we touch on them sometimes ”.
During his school years , Raphote used to play football , and would also participate in athletics . When he was still growing up , his favourite football club used to be Kaizer Chiefs , but he grew out of it as time went by . “ These days I don ’ t have a favourite football club ; I feel like these players are now doing it because they ’ ve been taught to do it , and not because they ’ ve got talent ,” he complains . With
Written by : Lebogang Mabange
his knowledge for sports , Raphote prefers to watch the developing teams instead of the developed ones because he feels that there ’ s more talent in the developing teams , and the players there are hungrier to showcase their talent . Locally , Dr Khumalo was Raphote ’ s ’ favourite football player . “ Nowadays at my age , these young boys are not doing it for me . I mean , I do like Khama Billiat , but not as a favourite football player ,” he shares . However , he has a favourite football player internationally , which is Andres Iniesta . What ’ s made it difficult for Raphote to have a favourite footballer is that he does not just favour a player ; he looks at a player ’ s personality in and out of the pitch . Thomas mentions some of the famous football players who are from Tembisa like Themba Zwane , a midfielder for Mamelodi Sundowns ; and former Orlando Pirates player Jerry Sikhosana .
One of the people who inspires Raphote to work harder at VOT FM is the lady who ’ s presenting sports with him , Molebogeng Lebea and his favourite sports journalist / presenter is Robert Marawa because he believes that Marawa is a natural . He further explains that , “ Yes , there ’ s Thomas Mlambo , Walter Mokwena , but I feel like they are doing this because they ’ ve been taught ”. When it comes to female sports pesenters , he mentions Carol Tshabala and Lebo Motsoeli . Raphote ’ s wish is to become part of Thobela FM because he enjoys presenting sports in Sepedi .
87.6 FM is VOT FM ’ s Frequency .
Stay tuned .
FREQUENCY MAGAZINE SPORTS ISSUE PART 1