‘Father of Multichoice’ Nolo Letele on his life story inspiring the youth

Former MultiChoice Group Executive Chairperson Nolo Letele said the recently launched documentary telling his story is to serve as inspiration for young people across the continent.

“It’s really to try assist the youth in finding themselves and finding that space to grow,” former MultiChoice Group Executive Chairperson Nolo Letele, told The Citizen after the screening of his documentary, Yes, to the Impossible: The Nolo Letele Story.

“If I narrow it down as a black person who came up through the difficulties that I went through, came up through apartheid system and got to where I got to, that I think was targeted at black people but I didn’t want to just narrow it for that reason,” he said.

“Whether you’re coloured, Indian, pink or you’re white…they [youth] all go through pretty much the same things, they need that kind of motivation to be able to grow in the system.”

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Father of MultiChoice

The title of ‘father of MultiChoice’ is no hyperbole.  In 1990 Letele was asked to join M-net by then-Naspers CEO Koos Bekker to help build DStv into the juggernaut it is today.

In spite of South Africa’s image during the dark apartheid years, Letele succeeded in pioneering MultiChoice’s expansion into the rest of Africa, and in 1995 went on to serve in Ghana as West African regional general manager.

He returned home when he was appointed chief executive of MultiChoice South Africa a few years later.

Follow your dream

In the mid-60s Letele moved to England, after growing the desire to be a nuclear physicist. He eventually studied electronic engineering at the University of Southampton, becoming a chartered engineer.

The launch of his documentary was mainly attended by senior citizens whom Letele chastised for not allowing their kids to do what they love, instead forcing them into careers that come with a level of stability but don’t make their kids happy.

Yet Letele who loves music, left it when he was younger to go into a formal career.

“Let me tell you why, I had been doing music for a number of years and I had lived in the UK and I had been with musicians,” averred Letele.

 “I always say, have your dream if you have it, follow it and take it as far as you can. I didn’t have that passion to make this [music] my career, I mean in the UK I was playing at pubs for free drinks, I was with my friends and it was fun.”

So decent was he as a muso that he was part of renowned band from Lesotho Sankomota before they had that name when they went as the Anti Antiques.

“As a musician, it’s only less than one percent who actually make into fame; make money and get out there. The rest, you don’t know where your next meal is coming from, you’re sleeping on the floor and that is your future.”

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Lessons learnt

He went to study in the UK as a young man and said that his time there helped him so much, that he also attributes it to his success as an employee of MultiChoice who brought cable television to African homes.

 “I guess what I took out from living there was to be able to be resilient and able to achieve results-you don’t just start something and then nothing comes of it, shared the former MultiChoice head about lessons learnt from living in the UK.

Letele received several awards during his tenure at MultiChoice, including a Lifetime Africa Achievement Prize for Media Development in Africa; the Naspers Phil Weber Award; and the Black Business Executive Circle Chairman’s Award.

In 1999, he was appointed as MultiChoice Group chief executive until 2010, when he was appointed executive chair of the MultiChoice South Africa Holdings board, a position he held for 11 years.

He became a non-executive director of MultiChoice Group Limited after the company was spun out of Naspers and listed independently on the JSE.

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