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Tributes poured in over the weekend after news broke out on Friday night that Msibi had passed away at the age of 57.
The son of broadcaster Phumlani Msibi has reflected on his father’s passing. Picture: supersporttv/Instagram
Reflecting on his father, the son of late broadcaster Phumlani Msibi, Ndu Msibi, said he admired the broadcaster’s ambition to achieve his dreams.
“I think more than anything, he’s a man that chased after his dreams,” said Ndu, speaking to broadcaster Robert Marawa on his show.
Tributes poured in over the weekend after news broke out on Friday night that Msibi had passed away at the age of 57.
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‘A guy who comes from Umlazi, went to Joburg with a dream‘
Messages of condolence have been coming in from ordinary sports fans, politicians, political parties, and industry colleagues.
“I think more than anything it’s his drive to actually go out and achieve what he set out to achieve because at the end of the day, he’s just a guy who comes from Umlazi and went to Joburg with a dream in his head, something that he was highly, highly passionate about.”
Ndu said he was out of the country when news of his father’s passing broke out on Friday night.
“So I had to make my way back to South Africa, Joburg specifically, to make such arrangements. But more than anything, when his time came, he was actually surrounded by family and the people that loved him,” said Ndu.
“Over and above that, as the Msibi family, he’s a father, he’s a son, he’s a brother, he’s an uncle. So for us, that’s the person that we remember, more than the face that appears on television,” Ndu said, adding how the family was ‘highly appreciative’ of the outpouring of messages that people have shared since his passing.
Ndu spoke with Marawa just before going into a family meeting, which is expected to give clarity on when and where Msibi will be laid to rest, as well as details about his memorial service.
Ndu said that such was the outpouring of love for his father that some have even asked to make donations to the Msibi family.
Msibi began his career at the South African Broadcasting Corporation before moving over to MultiChoice’s SuperSport.
SuperSport CEO Rendani Ramovha acknowledged Msibi’s sterling reputation and professionalism in a tribute late on Friday night.
“Msibi’s loss will be felt not just by the broadcaster and the football fraternity, but by the whole sporting community at large. We are gravely saddened by his passing,” Ramovha said.
Mr ‘Thoughts, please‘
A close friend of Msibi, Marawa, reminisced about Msibi’s impact as a broadcast journalist.
In his interviews immediately after football games, Msibi had the trademark ‘thoughts, please,’ in which he asked coaches and players for their views about the game that had just ended.
Marawa said Msibi’s modus operandi was good because it wasn’t about him expressing his views during a post-match interview, but the coach’s.
“Because it is the coach’s opinion that matters and not yours, in your initial question. So when you say ‘thoughts please’ you’re not giving the coach an opinion of what you’ve thought of the game, but you’re allowing him to give everybody the opinion of what he believes,” said Marawa.
Msibi was at times criticised for his approach to doing things, with people saying he should be more elaborate in his post-match questioning. So bad were the complaints that he went to Marawa to ask if he needed to make a change, perhaps.
“That was his brilliance, the ability to handle post-match interviews in a way that I think, at times, when he got criticised by people, to say why not say more than ‘thoughts please’. He said, ‘What should I do?’ I said, ‘Keep doing that’.”
Marawa said he had admired Msibi for many years, even before they were colleagues on SuperSport, during Marawa’s time at the SABC.
“I watched him from afar, from the public broadcaster’s perspective, and I was like ‘wow’. The genius of the man, the knowledge of the man, the depth of knowledge,” said Marawa.
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