Goodbye Randfontein, it is time for me to bow out

In the last five years I had the opportunity to be the voice of this town, but now my chapter has come to an end and I bid you adieu!

I’d like to give you a heartfelt goodbye and thank you for trusting me with many of your stories to teach, warn and educate others.

No matter how small or big, happy or sad your stories were, I approached all of them with the utmost integrity.

I owe it to you for trusting me and for still believing in people like me – members of the media who are a watchdog of society.

Thank you for welcoming me into your homes, offices, schools, businesses, events and farms; for always being willing to spare some time when I needed details for a story.

Thank you for always insisting that I get something to drink or eat immediately when I arrived at your events on weekends – you’ve been very hospitable indeed!

Thank you, for always thinking of me when you saw accidents or when you felt neglected by the municipality for leaving you frustrated for endless weeks and months.

Thank you for joining hands with me in holding those in charge responsible as we strove to ensure they did their job properly, because that’s the right thing to do.

Thank you for not hesitating to point out when you were failed, and continued your faith in me as your mouthpiece! And always trusting that I would perfectly mirror how you felt.

Thank you for giving me those calls at odd hours because you knew I’d always be there.

In this job, I had the honour of speaking to intelligent people, creative geniuses and public officials, but I must admit that it was tales by ordinary people that gave all of us hope.

In the last five years, I’ve not only grown my career, but I’ve also gown as a person. I’ve also learnt how to accommodate different people with their cultures and opinions.

My job taught me that as people we have a lot of things in common; more than we can think, because we all want to be part of a community, we want to belong somewhere with stories that we hope will be told one day.

I’m happy to have been afforded an opportunity to contribute to the good things in society, and to uncover those that were wrong. As I’m signing out, I hope that I’ve once been your voice.