Alone Pilusa opens up about his journey into media

 By      : Avumile Seela

Twitter: @avumile_seela

Email  : avumilemofasa@gmail.com

Picture from Facebook: Umphakathi Fm

Alone Pilusa is a 38-year-old living in Randfontein, a small town in the Gauteng West district. Born and bred in Limpopo province. Like all kids who dreamt of pursuing other career paths, but due to his hometown situation, he could only get information, listen to music and drama through radio.

The radio exposure slowly and gently built an interest and developed into a passion that he has to put into practice and treat as a career. In the early 2000s, he got admission to study Bachelor of Arts majoring in media studies. This was a kick start opportunity to live the life he always desired to have.

Picture From Facebook: Alone Pilusa

Post tertiary studies, he started his media career at Jozi Fm then went to VUT Fm. In 2014, he decided to start Alone Pilusa Foundation. With the information and knowledge, he had gathered, he decided to start a business in the media sector.

Alone Pilusa is one of the unrecognized media personnel in the media space and network. In 2016, he started Merafong Fm to assist community members in Carletonville township to have access to news and give young upcoming artists a platform to showcase their talent.

This radio station helps the community in terms of job creation. Many media entrepreneurs face challenges when they want to start their businesses and some still fail to sustain those funds.

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As media companies were negatively affected by the Corona Virus pandemic, the communication and market were the most affected departments and this disadvantages many media companies from receiving funds.

With the load shedding crises that the country is still facing, companies and sponsors are not willing to invest and provide funds in these businesses.

Pulisa said that he never doubted the career route he had taken and with the business’ initial vision, he had to prioritize his business by self-funding the business until it was financially stable. And his main mission was to create more employment opportunities for individuals who pursued the same career route.

“If you check in South Africa, transformation is still a problem because you still have few black individuals owning media companies, so my primary mission was to own a radio station,” added Pilusa.

In April 2022, he started Umpakathi Fm and became the first and only radio station in the Rand West City Municipality. So far, his businesses are doing well and are highly appreciated by community member from Carletonville, Randfontein and other surrounding areas.

The two stations’ listenership increases daily due to the content produced in these two stations.” I’m looking forward to have not one but more than two radio stations”, said Pilusa. The two stations are winning hearts of the societies through voices.