Lerai Rakoditsoe is using her voice for good

“I want to be a world leader. What does that look like? I have no idea right now,” Lerai Rakoditsoe announces after I express my awe at her evolution over the past four years.

The 22-year-old TV presenter, doing her final year in politics and international relations at the University of Pretoria (UP), laughs when I point out that she’s nothing like the image that made her famous. She has become more outspoken, self-assured, and animated. “I’m in a space where I’m no longer taking myself as seriously as in the beginning,” she replies. “I knew the only thing I had going for me coming in was professionalism. Now I want to have fun with myself.”

When I first met the starry-eyed Rakoditsoe in early 2021, she was the new kid on the block. I did her first press interview when she made history as Nickelodeon Africa’s first African presenter at the age of 18.

“A few months prior to me joining, Uncle Vinny had joined MTV Base and we were great friends,” she says, remembering how she ended up presenting NickMusic. “One day, the Major League DJz were having an Amapiano Balcony Mix close to where I lived and Vinny asked me to bring him something to eat. So, I took him the skhaftin [lunchbox] and just ended up chilling with them. That particular Balcony Mix is online, you can actually see the moment that changed my life on a rooftop. I sent an audition tape to Paramount [the parent company of MTV Base and Nickelodeon Africa] after I’d been asked and then forgot about it.”

She is currently shaking things up at MTV Base.

Next, Rakoditsoe tells how she crossed paths with Grammy winner Tyla early in her career before the Water hitmaker found global superstardom.

“On my callback script, I think they had levelled it down to the final two and they’d accidentally given me the wrong script,” she recalls. “The name on top was Tyla. At the time, she had just gotten her record deal and dropped Getting Late with Kooldrink. Even more crazy, just before that I had interned for her first manager. It was funny to see her name pop up again. It’s crazy to see how much she has achieved.”

Rakoditsoe is now back at UP after taking a break last year to focus on her mental health.

“UP is one of the best research universities in Africa and my degree is research intensive,” she says. “It’s exciting to learn about what’s going on in the world. I want to get the degree so I can up my skills. I love learning and reading.”

We return to the topic of how, as a social changemaker, she plans to reshape the world. Rakoditsoe speaks with passion, her critical thinking paired with problem-solving skills and great communication. Her positive outlook on making an impactful change in society is rubbing off of me and I’m beginning to believe that there is a better and brighter future out there — the world is safe in her hands.

So, what is the next step after her getting her degree? Is it goodbye television? Not quite — later in the conversation she hints that she will be making her acting debut this year.

“I have no idea right now, but I can see myself in an international organisation that has Africa’s interests at its core,” she answers. “Maybe being part of the African Union [AU] and being part of the people who transform a powerful entity like the AU. I’m about collaboration, so, getting great minds and ideas together and working together to solve problems, whatever that may look like, that’s what my career is going to be. I want to be a strong female voice in Africa who encourages people to look at the world differently and develop an international-relations type of thinking.”

This year she launched RaiTalks, her politics podcast or, as she calls it, her “thought-leadership platform”. Having a publication like SMag give her a platform to air her views is also not something she takes lightly.

“Two or three weeks ago, SMag asked me to give my political opinion of the State of the Nation Address [Sona], which was happening in the evening,” she says. “That morning, I started stressing because you guys wanted to know my political opinions. It wasn’t about me looking pretty or a presenting thing.

"It aligned with my academic side, which was validated in that moment. That was a big achievement for me. I was sobbing the entire afternoon. I took my camera and started recording to encourage my followers to read the article. That validation was a great push.”

Rakoditsoe was raised by a single mother in Joburg, who remains her biggest hero — she knows that her mother sacrificed a lot, sending her to great schools while supporting extramural activities such as drama.

“I grew up watching an independent woman and I guess I became an independent woman myself. My mom comes from a hectic tech background and she got this child who just wants to run around in front of people and make them smile,” she says.

“She gave me that logical and entrepreneurial thinking that crafted how I approach my career. But she’s also such a mom, she will see a stranger in the street and start showing them pictures of her daughter, who is on TV. She’s so proud and that’s all I want to do, to make her proud.”