Who is Mahendra?

Mahendra Raghunath is the primary newsreader for SABC3. His most outstanding feature is not his news-writing or news-reading abilities, but rather his outlandish outfits. Yes, fashion does now dictate that people dress more colourfully than in the past - more and more for men, dark suits are being replaced by something flashy so that a boardroom may resemble a wedding. Big bright ties and bright shirts are replacing the understated dark suit, white shirt and sensible tie.

I have no problem with bright clothes, but, really, not in the newsroom. Typically, a news anchor should dress conservatively, soberly: you want to focus on the voice and you don't want bright pink ties with gigantic knots distracting you or throwing the plausibility and authority of the voice into question.

And imagine the contrast between footage from, say, Iraq or a floodswept Mozambique on the one hand, and the image of a brightly lit, colourful character reading the news on the other.

One could engage in a sociological reading of how South African tv personalities misread sartorial occasions (remember Deborah Patta dressed in evening frock and bombastic jewellery while reporting from NYC in the immediate aftermath of 9/11?) - that would make some interesting reading on our vapid bling-bling culture.

Follow me, though, as I document as regularly as possible what Mahendra wears for the news. Reportedly, he is dressed by Damat and Tween, a Turkish affair (what? I thought the SABC was proudly South African?), but certainly he could ask them for more sober selections, which they do have.

For a taster, you can see what is in Mahendra's fridge at TashiTagg.