Devi Sankaree Govender - South Africa's Christiane Amanpour

“If you want to be successful in this world, you need to follow your passion and not a pay check.” These are the words of Jennifer Welter, an American woman and the first female National Football League coach. Here, she brings up an important point about doing what you love in order to triumph in life, but it also brings up so many questions in my mind… what if you’re not just passionate about one thing? What if you want to be a mother, a journalist, a radio presenter and a television personality? What if you wanted it all? That is exactly where Devi Sankaree Govender comes in…

“I always had a full basket of goods. I never just had one job, even now,” Devi explains to me as she is telling me about how she broke into her field of work. As a little girl growing up in Umzinto, she fell in love with journalism after watching the very first episode of Carte Blanche in 1988; the same show that she would go on to become an integral part of. She later went to university to complete a BA degree, majoring in English, Drama and Performance Studies, where she eventually came to an important crossroads in her life. “I had been invited to do an Honours degree, but I was very concerned that I’d then end up being an actress. I told myself that if I got a freelance position somewhere, it would be a sign that I should continue and do the Honours degree.” Devi looks back at the CV that she sent out, and laughs at the fact that the highlight of the document was that she was head girl of her school, and had been part of numerous productions. Equipped with only limited experience and a vision which could not be deterred, she sent her CV to KTV and two radio stations – East Coast Radio and Lotus FM.

The only call-back she received was from Lotus FM, and although they subsequently did not choose her for the position, the programme manager saw the glimmer of potential in how she read the news in her audition. She landed a freelance position presenting a music show on a Friday night. “I just worked really hard at making sure that my pronunciation was correct,” says Devi about working at the predominantly Indian radio station, “even though I had no idea what the song titles meant.” Despite being a Hindu, she went to a Catholic school, and as a result of this, doesn’t speak any indigenous Indian languages. It was a completely new experience for her, but Devi had already made up her mind about what she wanted to do. Whilst completing her Honours degree, she continued to freelance at the SABC, and during that time also finishing her teaching diploma and taught Afrikaans, English, and Speech and Drama at two KZN schools.

It wasn’t long before she was offered a full-time position at the SABC, where Devi had secured her own talk show by the age of 23. She says that she felt completely at home with the controversial, in-your-face content of the show, and that it was common ground for her to work on; as she would continue to do throughout her career. In the meantime, she was offered a column by the Sunday Times, which meant that by her mid-twenties, she had already covered two of the three main mediums of journalism: print and radio. By 1999, she had joined the Sunday Times in Durban as their features editor, at the same time as continuing her talk show at the SABC.

Although thus far, Devi had been up-and-coming, doing very well for herself, the breakthrough moment in her career was still to come… “In 1998, Nelson Mandela asked to see me. I thought it was very weird, because I couldn’t understand why the president of our country would want to meet me. During that meeting, I invited him onto my talk show, and the condition that I made was that the questions wouldn’t be preapproved. The whole thing about asking for that interview, is that it made me realise that anything and everything was possible.”

The year 2000 was a very important milestone for Devi, as it was the year she had gotten married and received the news that she had fallen pregnant with her first child. It was also the year that she started her MBA degree. In journalism, there isn’t really a corporate structure, so Devi was met with much confusion as to why she wanted to continue studying. “The reason I did it wasn’t because I wanted to climb the corporate ladder… I did it because I wanted to be able to look at a company’s financial statements, and understand where the money went. The only gap in my knowledge was a management accounting and financial background.” During this time, she also began working in the only medium of journalism she had not yet covered – her television career began with her involvement in Eastern Mosaic, a long-running SABC programme that gave a unique insight into South Africa’s Indian community.

It was also during this year that Devi felt she was finally ready to send her show reel and CV to Carte Blanche, realising her childhood dream. She was called in for an interview, and the company decided to give her a chance. “My first year was a disaster, because I only had three stories in the entire year. I lived in Durban, and most of the stories would be in Johannesburg, so I really had to prove myself. Going into my second year at Carte Blanche, I was part of a team that cracked a driver’s licence fraud story in Durban. That’s when I realised that I needed to do on television what I was used to doing on radio – being confrontational.” The case put her on the map, and fifteen years later, that is still where she finds herself, still in love with her job, still passionate about South Africa, and cannot imagine herself doing anything else. “Because I love my job, I have never worked a day in my life,” she affirms.

The striking thing about Devi though, is not her status as a high-profile journalist and reporter, but rather the journey she took to reach that point. Growing up in the South Africa that she did in a time when opportunities were limited, Devi accredits her parents for empowering her and giving her the freedom to make her own decisions, even though journalism was seen as an incredibly dangerous job. At no point in her life did an opportunity knock at Devi’s door; instead, it was Devi that broke down that door and took the opportunities for herself. “The message that I try to pass onto my children is to work hard, and always perform beyond expectations.”

What one has to remember, is that Devi was never only a journalist. From 2000, she was a wife and shortly afterwards a mother, and along with that comes responsibility that most working women find difficult to juggle. For Devi, every night is like studying for a matric final exam. She has to ready herself for her upcoming, and sometimes challenging interviews, and the incredible thing is that every night, she also has the time to make dinner for her family and pack her children’s lunches for the next day. She firmly believes in living a life of balance, emphasising the importance of enough sleep and exercise.

In the society we live in today, success is defined in terms of monetary value and happiness does not really fit into that equation. When you ask the younger generations what they strive to become one day, the reply will never be a profession, but rather the hollow response of ‘famous’. The difference between Devi and her other fellow celebrities is that Devi does not regard herself above anyone. She is humble and kind, always remembering the route she took to where she is now. Because unlike so many others in her position, Devi’s spotlight never blinded her to reality. In contrast, it serves as a lighthouse to others, exemplifying how people should endeavour to live their lives.