“You won’t believe that since I retired, South Africa hasn’t stopped showing and expressing the love that they have,”
While still working as a new broadcaster, Noxolo Grootboom’s trademark send-off was “Ndinithanda nonke emakhaya [I love all of you at home]”.
After 37 years of telling viewers that she loves them, Grootoom retired as an isiXhosa newsreader in 2021 and the 65 year-old, who still looks 40, has been receiving the love back from the nation post her time on screen.
“You won’t believe that since I retired, South Africa hasn’t stopped showing and expressing the love that they have,” Grootboom told The Citizen at the launch of the Nando’s campaign, on Friday.
Grootboom is part of a Nando’s ad that brings the full orchestra to the table.
She narrates the ad, which features rapper Kwesta and Rachel (a Nandoca turned TikTok phenomenon).
The ad is about South Africans who embody an elusive ‘thing’ you can’t quite explain – but you know it when you feel it.
ALSO READ: Nearly 4 million viewers tuned into Noxolo Grootboom’s farewell
Grootboom post retirement
After retirement, senior citizens don’t often get their flowers for work they’ve put in throughout their career.
“I normally say when I retired, the outpouring of love hasn’t stopped, actually. Wherever I go, people say ‘Mama, we will remember [the love]’ – they will remember me.”
The appreciation of her and her work is so much that Grootboom says that she sometimes disguises herself when in public.
“Sometimes I have this tendency, if I’m going out, I’ll wear a cap or a bucket hat and then, maybe I will start speaking and someone will [be] like ‘what? This voice’. The voice too has not been forgotten, it’s not just the face. Such gestures, add value to the person that I am. I feel richly blessed,” she averred.
In a 2024 Gala dinner in East London, singer and songwriter and uMhlobo Wenene broadcaster, Dumza Maswana invited Grootboom to be a speaker. This made sense because of their shared appreciation of the isiXhosa language.
“Mam’Noxolo Grootboom is such an icon, her humility is out of this world,” said Maswana.
“We spoke about our love for isiXhosa, our beautiful culture and how we can promote and preserve it. I’ve always loved her, but to sit with her was amazing. She said some words to me that will be in my heart forever,” Maswana told The Citizen, adding that he didn’t think Grootboom knew who he was.
“Yoh mtanami [my child,] it is so humbling. You would have expected people to be kind of ‘ugh, man’ let her rest. But it is so humbling to discover that even after such a long time, there are people who are saying there is something that we can get out of your voice,” said the seasoned broadcast journo.
ALSO READ: Singer and broadcaster Dumza Maswana on living out his late grandmother’s dream [VIDEO]
Grootboom having fun
Grootboom says when the global franchise eatery brand started shooting the ad, she asked what they actually wanted.
“Do you want my news voice? And they laughed but they said ‘give us the news voice, give us the jolly you’. And it actually ended up being me experimenting with my voice, giving them all kinds of voices, having fun” the former isiXhosa newsreader shared.
“It kind of gave me an indication that besides doing news of course, preaching, motivational speeches, I can do a little bit of fun.”
She doesn’t see her work with the eatery as a collaboration, but an invitation.
“The invitation to join in this campaign, to lend a voice has shown me what I can achieve” she said.
Time out after retirement
In her time out from doing what she loves most, the former newsreader has been giving back.
“Yoh!!! I haven’t slowed down,” she said.
“If I’m not launching a news channel here, I’m launching it there, if I’m not translating here I’m translating there. If I’m not preaching here, I’m preaching there, if I’m not doing motivational speeches here, I’m in prison… this is the kind of activity I’m involved in,” said Grootboom.
Despite being a victim of crime more than once, she has never thought of moving to Australia.
“The most that adds value to the person that I am is giving back,” she said.
“When I get an invitation to go to prisons, those are people who have broken the law. I know, My house has been broken into several times but when I get to go to prison, who knows maybe the person who broke into my house is amongst the guys that I’m motivating. That doesn’t stop just because I am a victim of crime… it hasn’t stopped me from telling them that there is a better side.”
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