Keeping Us Riveted To The Radio

- Glenda Williams

Barely a minute after sitting down with DJ Fresh, and I’m doubled over with laughter. Fresh is not only one of the most recognised and dynamic voices on air, he is also distinguished by his unmistakably infectious laugh.

Now 44, the man that keeps us riveted to our radio, first with YFM then 5FM and now with Metro FM, has grown his brand and career beyond that which his parents could ever have imagined.

Born and raised in Botswana, this dynamic man with huge presence is today one of South Africa’s top entertainment personalities. Apart from an illustrious career in radio presenting, he is a prolific international club DJ, a sought-after television personality, popular social media sensation and successful businessman.

Gym and boxing fit with an imposing physique, tattooed Fresh commands attention wherever he goes. But while he has been part of the SA entertainment industry for decades, it was no easy journey getting to where he now is.

As a kid he was a bit of a maverick and by his own admission, disruptive in class. “I was bored. They were boring me to death,” he tells finweek.

He was just 13 when his parents packed him off to boarding school. “They figured I needed to wake up and boarding school was that. It’s a gentler form of conscription, albeit a conscription of love,” he says wryly.

It was not a particularly happy time and he was bullied at school about his weight. He found solace in music and started deejaying at 13, a passion his parents did not share.