AFTER 28 YEARS, TICH MATAZ IS BACK ON SA RADIO

IT has taken 28 years but Tich Mataz is back on South African radio. He starts his shift on Channel Africa, the international broadcasting service arm of SABC radio, TOMORROW. Last night Tich Mataz confirmed to H-Metro that he was back on South African radio.

“It’s true man,” he said. “I’m starting on April 1.” Naturally, he was happy to be back on a landscape where he made his name, on the international front, before his empire came crashing down. His re-engagement comes exactly 28 years after he was deported from South Africa.

Back then, Tich Mataz was one of the hottest names on South African radio and he says he was a MILLIONAIRE, in United States dollars. He was one of the poster boys of the buzzing entertainment scene as South Africa celebrated its Independence. The Rainbow Nation had been born, just a year earlier, and Tich Mataz was one of the stars providing the motion picture soundtrack as an entire nation was dancing to the rhythm of its Independence.

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The walls of apartheid had fallen and there were opportunities everywhere for those who were daring to dream big. The Springboks won the Rugby World Cup at home, defeating their biggest rivals the All Blacks 15-12 after extra-time, to send the Rainbow Nation into delirium. There were 25 top-of-the-range cars in his garage, at least nine immovable properties on his real estate portfolio and a nightclub in Rosebank where the rich and famous of the new nation used to meet and spend big.

“I was a millionaire in USD terms,” Tich Mataz told H-Metro. In the past thirty years he has was playing on the local club circuit as a DJ, which is what he used to do at the beginning before he became a big star on Radio 3, which is now Power FM, and moving into South Africa.

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