By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Veteran Zimbabwean media personality Tich Mataz has joined Channel Africa, the international broadcasting service of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).
Mataz will be hosting the African Diaries from 10pm to 12midnght.
Also joining the station is the charasmatic and sexy voiced former 5FM presenter Poppy Ntshongwana who will anchor the station drive show between 15:00-18:00.
Former Radio 2000 Mmatsheko Mosito will host mid-morning 09:00-12:00.
Mataz was deported on March 24, 1998, after Home Affairs officials discovered he had fraudulently acquired a South African identity document and had no valid working permit.
The investigation discovered that Mataz had been issued with a work permit on March 31, 1994, which was valid only until March 31, 1995, to work at BOP Broadcasting in Bophuthatswana.
“I was a millionaire at 25 years old,” Mataz said in response to those allegations. “I was living in South Africa and at the time I went everywhere. I went to Jamaica just to see where Bob Marley had been born, I went to his shrine, his museum because I had the money. I went to see Michael Jackson do his last official concert; the History Tour in Prague I was there. Before I met Michael Jackson in Zimbabwe, I met him there.
Mataz joined Power FM in 1988 which was then known as Radio 3. He later on relocated to South Africa. In 1994, he joined 5FM. He also presented the famous Coca-Cola On The Beat Music show which was aired on Zimbabwe Television (ZTV) in the 1990s.