Johannesburg, Tributes poured in for South African Indian-origin media personality Ramprakash Gopidayal, who pioneered television programmes and radio recordings for the local Indian community, as he was cremated on Friday after succumbing to illness a day before.
With apartheid waning, the SABC started ‘Impressions’, a weekly magazine programme on TV for the Indian community, in 1986. Popularly known as Ramu, Gopidayal, despite being an introverted, camera-shy man, started the first television programme for the Indian community, ‘Impressions’, on national state broadcaster South African Broadcasting Corporation , in the apartheid era. It fell upon Gopidayal to take on the task of starting an unprecedented programme from scratch. A keen guitarist, Gopidayal also played an instrumental role in setting up the resident band Kamal Sungeeth at the SABC radio station for the Indian community, Radio Lotus. As it grew, Gopidayal played a key role in developing, shaping, and managing the flagship television programme dedicated to highlighting South African Indian culture, music, news, and community stories. The show provided a crucial platform for local South African Indian-origin musicians, artists, and cultural figures to gain national exposure during a period when media representation for the community was extremely limited. He also had a stint as Station Manager at Hindvani, the first radio station exclusively for the Hindi-speaking community in South Africa.
