Given Mkhari
Given Mkhari
Given Mkhari is the founder and Group CEO at MSG Afrika Investment Holdings and has served in various aspects of the media and creative industries including, but not limited to, radio broadcasting and management, television production, public relations, advertising and events management[0]He founded Capricorn FM in Limpopo, Gauteng's Power FM, Rhythm FM and Beat FM in the Eastern Cape and Free State respectively[1].
Given Mkhari refers to himself as a 'coward with conviction' because he doesn’t generally jump into something until he is convinced that he will make it better or make it different.
Career
After he wrote an essay on the developmental trajectory of South Africa, he got a scholarship to study microeconomics in the United States but dropped out and studied part-time.
He got an internship at Inner City Broadcasting Corporation, which owned 2 radio stations -WBLS and LAB - as a producer for a breakfast show hosted by Les Brown and Gladys Knight [1]While in the U.S he also for a movie house and thus got exposure to the overall media space.
In September 1996, while still America, when rapper 2Pac died, Mkhari called Metro FM to offer them the story[5].
He became an international corresponder for Metro FM and later got an offer from them and relocated back to South Africa.
He worked at Metro FM for four years until 2005[8].He was also a producer and presenter at the then newly launched Kaya FM and worked there for six months.
He co-founded The Communications Firm in 2000 and serves as its Chairman of the Board.
He also serves as the Chairman of MSG Africa Media and a Director of Johannesburg of The Jupiter Drawing Room (South Africa).
He has been an Independent Non Executive Director of Dialogue Group Holdings Ltd.
since December 1, 2006.
Mr. Mkhari is a Director of LoveLife Trust and The International Marketing Council of South Africa.
He also served as the Chairman of The Jupiter Drawing Room.
In 2007, with funding from a local women's consortium, his first radio station -Capricorn FM went live.
In three months after launching, Capricorn FM drew 45,000 listeners[5]
Given Mkhari is a former teacher by profession[6] and lasted 30 days on the job.
MSG Afrika Investment Holdings
In 1998 Mr Mkhari started a company which would become MSG Afrika Investment Holdings - a black-owned media and communications group which has interests in:
The Jupiter Drawing Room
Metropolitan Republic
Capricorn FM
Power FM
Rhythm FM
Beats FM
Quizzical Pictures
The Communications Firm
The Quarto Press
Education
He holds a Bachelor’s Degree and a Higher Education Diploma from the University of the North (now University of Limpopo)
Notable Events
Both Chairmans Conversations drew a lot of criticism from the public against Given Mkhari[4].
Personal Life
He was born and raised in a small town of Tzaneen, in Limpopo Province, north of South Africa.
He met his equally accomplished wife - Ipeleng Mkhari[7], founder of Motseng Investment Holdings (MIH)- at Kaya FM when he interviewed her on a business show.
Mr Mkhari has four daughters with his wife - Ipeleng - and one from a previous relationship.