Given Majola
Sandile Mchunu, whom we affectionately called by his clan name Macingwane, a company reporter at Business Report, drew his last breath at the King Edward Vlll Hospital in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), on Sunday.
He leaves his fiancée, family, friends, colleagues and clan and will be sorely missed.
Sandile served diligently as a reporter at BR from February 2016 at Independent Media's KZN regional office. Just last month, he celebrated his birthday.
At work he was a good colleague, reliable and willing to help not just budding reporters, but also everyone else on all aspects of life.
Prior to BR, he worked as a sports reporter. His stories of experiences of his life from those days with players, coaches and administrators will be missed by many.
He was respected by friends he made throughout the past years studying at the former version of what is now the Durban University of Technology, UCT and Stellenbosch University.
But Macingwane did not always have an easy life. From what he told me, I understand he grew up under tough circumstances in Ladysmith and Msinga. At some point, he had to leave school due to the violence in that part of the world, which led to schools shutting down. It is for those reasons that he went to Port Elizabeth, now officially renamed Gqeberha.
His mother also died, which was hard.
Sandile, like many South Africans, spent a stint being unemployed and struggled to find a job. To put together a CV and print it to apply for a job, he even had to ask for monetary assistance.
But as we know, he did find work as a reporter and had plans to later in life go into business. He would have made a great business person and employer, helping hire people to overcome poverty. No one needs to be told that our country needs people like this so much.
I valued and treasured Sandile. His passing is indeed a great loss.
BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE