Nkosinathi Eric Mkhunjulwa, born 06 June 1988 in Ladybrand, is the youngest son of Vuyisile Amos Mkhunjulwa (born 1951, died 2008)and Moelo Rebecca Mkhunjulwa (born 1958, died 2001) - granddaughter of Arthur Pitso. He completed his primary schooling in Ficksburg (Meqheleng Primary School) and his secondary schooling in Ladybrand (Sehlabeng Secondary School) after which he went to study psychology and then journalism in Pretoria.
He is a divorced father of four (three sons and one daughter) namely Vuyani, Bandile, Dalindyebo and Anathi. His first wife was (mother to Vuyani and Bandile) was Lerato and his current wife (mother to Dalindyebo and Anathi) is Makali.
He has always loved working in media as his first job in the industry was a freelancing post at a community weekly called MADDHOUSE PRINTING AND WEEKLY (shut operations in 2010). Also, he became a printing assistant at MADDHOUSE where he learned the art of printing, designing, newspaper production and journalism basics while he was still in secondary schooling level. Four years before he enrolled for a national diploma in journalism at TSHWANE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY (TUT). From TUT school of journalism Mkhunjulwa went on into government communications and fell in love with the art of persuasive communications within the government sphere.
Besides learning the art of government communication at the National Department of Public Works (Expanded Public Works Programme PR and Communications Directorate), he also learned how to market key government flagship programmes to the public.
In 2015, after leaving his position as Chief Editor at REKORD MEDIA, he was appointed as Special Programmes Officer at Mantsopa Local Municipality, Mkhunjulwa have been tasked to undertake communications responsibilities for the municipality and thus becoming the municipality’s spokesperson.
Mkhunjulwa, though he began the year 2015 as a media practitioner, he had to change roles by June of the very same year and fitted into the role of a government communicator. At REKORD, he always voiced how journalism principles were not upheld as well as how certain municipal officials would leak information and have the media outlet misconstrue it upon publication in order to influence public perception about the municipality. He was obviously against this and the founder of REKORD MEDIA slowly resented Mkhunjulwa until the day he left REKORD. In an attempt to discredit Mkhunjulwa, REKORD MEDIA published an article headlined “BREAKING NEWS: MUNICIPAL SPOKESPERSON BEING INVESTIGATED BY TWITTER FOR RACIAL REMARKS” in which they alleged he photoshopped a photo that was posted by a Democratic Alliance (DA) councilor and that Twitter was investigating him. The paper announced that Twitter provided them with the case number of which they could not produce. It all came out that it was just a lie and the smear campaign died off.
Mkhunjulwa handled this matter elegantly though. Because he believed in the principles of virtuous journalism practices, took up the matter with the Press Ombudsman and won the case. As it was expected, REKORD MEDIA did not implement what the Ombuds instructed them to do. This happened in 2016 and in 2021 (04 February), we accessed the Facebook post by LADYBRAND REKORD even though they were instructed to remove them.
Though his communications journey at local was short lived, he made necessary impact and influenced the public positively on matters relating to governance and politics within he municipality. Mkhunjulwa’s was a political appointee and as thus his employment contract ended when the country went to the 2016 LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS.
In 2019, Mkhunjulwa joined the People On The Move Radio managerial and technical team in Lesotho. He was trusted for various managerial positions within the radio station because of his vast technical media production knowledge. He trained many media students during their in-service training attachments between 2019-2020 and all of them left the station, at the end of their attachments,better versions as compared to how they came in. He also presented a business show (called Re Hola Khoebong) and entertainment shows (Semphete Keo Fete, and Sunday Chillas) under the name Erik Wa Azaniah.
It is said that Mkhunjulwa left the radio station at the end of 2020. The rumors are that he has plans to establish his own media company in South Africa.