How 702’s Breakfast Show host, Bongani Bingwa, found the courage to live his own authentic life

Bongani Bingwa was just a wide-eyed 12-year-old when he moved with his parents from Mthatha in the Transkei to the City of Gold. Awed by the skyscrapers, the freeways, and the hustle and bustle of Joburg life, he felt like Harry Potter arriving at Hogwarts.

And just like that famous wizard-in-training, Bongani would soon be weaving a spell of his own, not with a wand and incantations, but with his natural charisma and his prowess as a public speaker.
As the winner of a school debating contest, Bongani was invited onto the set of the SABC breakfast show, Good Morning, South Africa, where a producer watching from the sidelines saw something special in his articulacy and his on-camera presence.

In true Hollywood fashion, Bongani was invited to audition for a role as presenter on a children’s TV show. That was just the start of a TV and radio career that has earned Bongani prime slots on Carte Blanche and 702, where he currently hosts the Breakfast Show, interviewing newsmakers, movers, and shakers, and sharing his outspoken views with his growing legion of listeners.

But Bongani has a moving and powerful story of his own to tell, about transformation, revolution, love, learning, marriage, the joys of fatherhood, coping with tragedy, and discovering his true self as an out-and-proud gay man. Bongani sat down with Ruda for a candid chat about his professional and personal life, and what he has learned about the healing power of change.