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Candid, clever but not cynical

There are three things that matter most to popular talkshow host Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu - her family, career and community development.

There are three things that matter most to popular talkshow host Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu - her family, career and community development.

Growing up in a multi-cultural community of Mthatha, which was characterised by gangsterism and other bad activities, it is not difficult to see why Maholwana-Sangqu got her priorities straight right from the beginning.

"I had to decide whether to play around or to continue on the learning route. I chose the latter," she says.

After finishing her matric in 1985, Maholwana-Sangqu, who describes herself as a multi tasker, hard-working, focused and a people's person, worked for two years as a receptionist at a construction company before her first break at a radio station came.

"I saw an advertisement for an English newsreader for Radio Transkei and applied. I was so excited when I got the job. That was the beginning of my career in broadcasting," she says.

The married mother of three later joined 702 Talk Radio where she worked as a reporter and news editor before she became a talkshow host.

In 2003 she swapped the microphone for the small screen.

She joined SABC3 as the host of her current talkshow, 3Talk with Noeleen, which is screened daily.

She says her openness, honesty and ability to ask candid questions with compassion is what makes her show popular.

Maholwana-Sangqu, a graduate of the University of South Africa, where she mastered an executive development programme with four distinctions, has also been working closely with charity organisations.

She is trustee and chairman of Tomorrow Trust, a charity organisation that enables aids orphans to receive tertiary education.

She is also trustee of the Cancer Foundation, which raises funds for cancer patients and has also been working closely with the Unilever Aids Trust, which also raises funds for Aids orphans.

Maholwana-Sangqu, who has graced the covers of popular magazines such as Soul, You and True Love, has received several accolades for her work in television, including the People's Choice Award, You magazine awards and most recently won best presenter at the Mzansi Awards.

She says the world has always been her stage.

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