The Sunday News
Rebecca Nyathi
TALKING to an unseen audience can be easy and anyone with a voice can do that. But presenting is not just talking and is more difficult, for you have to know what to say, when to say it and how to say it, what with a lot of people finding it hard to speak into a microphone.
One woman who has perfected the art of presenting is ZiFM radio presenter Ruvheneko Parirenyatwa.
She has the voice, she is easy going, confident, eloquent and just fabulous. She makes listening to the radio a not-to-be-missed thing whenever she is in the studio.
She can easily get people pull their chairs or up the volume on their radios as she delivers her programmes.
The 26-year-old who has already made a name for herself as a journalist, activist, emcee and deputy chairperson of the Harare Youth Council captures the attention of many through her radio programmes which cover politics, social issues, health matters and youth-focused discussions.
Parirenyatwa is a woman on the go — even the sky will not limit her. She has managed with so much ease to endear herself to the audience and her never-say-die spirit is probably the reason why she is also thriving as the deputy chairperson of the Harare Youth Council, while on the other hand she has become a new favourite as an emcee at various functions. As if all this is not enough, she is also an entrepreneur who runs a shop at Harare International Airport.
Parirenyatwa holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Media Writing, and Political Science and also a Marketing Diploma from the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
In her second year, she joined the university’s radio station as the current affairs talk show host. From then onwards, Parirenyatwa started to rise from obscurity to be a shining star she has become today.
She then joined ZiFM radio station in 2012.
In November 2013, she was nominated to participate in the Africa Leadership Project which was to be launched in 2014.
She was the emcee at the Miss Zimbabwe 2014 pageant.
She said the challenges she has faced as a radio presenter include fear by people to speak freely and openly on certain issues that bother them.
“There are some topics that I choose to talk about on the radio, but due to unknown reasons many people find it hard to talk openly about them, instead I get texts asking if I am even listening to myself. Zimbabweans are very sensitive and very judgmental,” she said.
Parirenyatwa added that since she has been married for a year and some months, she has learnt to balance her work and marriage life.
“I have learnt to balance my work with my marriage life, but mostly I believe I am blessed to have an understanding husband who is very supportive and makes it easy for me to do my work freely,” she said.
The radio presenter added that her inspiration comes from many different sources, including people she interacts with on a daily basis.
“I find inspiration in people, everyday experiences. I just believe that God has given me a chance that he didn’t give to anyone and he saved me from many different things that could have harmed me in life,” she said.
