TV REPORTER PLOUGHS BACK BY GIVING STUDENTS INDUSTRY INSIGHT

One of the country’s top senior news reporters, Aviwe Mtila, who’s enjoyed a rapid rise as a broadcast journalist recently spent time engaging with students from WSU’s media studies department.

An almost daily fixture across the country’s small screens, Ginsberg’s Aviwe Mtila went back to where it all began as he visited the institution’s journalism department to conduct his online address with the students.

“Though tough, the road to achieving, realising and living your goals can be a difficult one and thus your passion and hunger for what you want must always lead you on your journey,” said Mtila.

Though he initially stumbled as a student during his first semester, Mtila quickly regained his balance thanks to encouragement from his friends, and thereafter regained his focus and purpose for having enrolled into the journalism programme.

The subsequent years in the programme would see Mtila elevating himself to greater heights by actively participating in activities outside and beyond the academic programme.

“As a student I had already started building my portfolio through the work I was doing with local newspapers and radio station. I actively sought opportunities that availed themselves and never doubted my ability,” he said.

Mtila attributes his enthusiasm, hunger and curiosity for knowledge to a group of friends he made while studying – a collective that always pushed each other to realise one’s full potential.

It was this drive and unwillingness to settle for mediocrity that saw the collective, during their final year, unifying and coordinating an effort to sought out the best in-service training opportunities each could find.

“Eventually I’d land an internship opportunity at both Forbes Africa and MSNCBC where I did both print and broadcast journalism. It was at that time that I would prove my worth and show my mettle,” said Mtila.

In his address to the students, perhaps his most important lesson came in his account of how many times he’d been rejected by eNCA before landing his dream job.

It would take six attempts for Mtila to finally secure employment from eNCA after applying and falling short on five different occasions.

“It was on the sixth attempt that I applied for a business reporter position at the news agency. I had no clue about business reporting as I had not done economics, but I knew all I needed was an opportunity to access those doors,” he said.

Within the first hour of his new job at eNCA, Mtila was thrown in the deep end after being tasked to cover a story about the petrol price hike.

After surpassing all expectations, he said he got rave reviews from fellow staff members.