OBITUARY | Eusebius McKaiser was an intellectual giant and a vulnerable human being

It is little wonder that Eusebius McKaiser’s last tweet was in praise of a talented young South African who had made his debut on the world stage. McKaiser was highly supportive of home-grown artists, from writers and broadcasters to sportspeople who excelled. Possessed of a deep generosity, he used his profile as a means to amplify the success of others.

The expression of shock and outpouring of emotion at the news of his death is an indication of who McKaiser was and what role he had played in our society. When he took to his public platforms to criticise the inertia and dishonesty of our political leaders, he did so in defence of the many millions of South Africans who still lead lives of misery three decades into democracy. His critique sprang from a place of profound love for, and frustration with, a country blessed with so much potential that repeatedly fails to reach it.

Analytical as he was, McKaiser would have perceived the parallel of Musa Motha’s story with the country of our birth — a country that has lost so much in the horrors of colonialism, apartheid and post-democratic coloniality, but a nation of people who nonetheless find ways to rise, to survive, strive and yet find their joy despite the system that daily thwarts their efforts.

Buoyed by his obsession with social justice and equality, McKaiser held the powerful from all sectors to account. But one of his most remarkable achievements was his conscious choice as a talk radio host to mine society’s most controversial issues in all their complexity without patronising his audience. He made demands on his listeners to think critically, to reconsider their previously held views, to break down tropes and stereotypes and to learn the power of thoughtful argumentation.

He gave them the vocabulary, creating pathways for them to access academic theory, and the practical levers to process the meaning of their lives, from the political to the personal. He offered them a forum, but made it quite clear in a world where opinions have come to matter more than facts, that we are only entitled to our justified opinions, not our alternative set of facts. In so doing, he grew a generation of empowered radio listeners who began to consume media more astutely and respond more thoughtfully and analytically, and hopefully who imported that faculty into their daily decision-making and worldview.

While he engaged in this subtle pedagogic exercise, McKaiser was daily educating himself. The fire of his sharp intellect required constant refuelling and he stayed true to the responsibility of stoking it, reading voraciously, revisiting and re-examining his own perspectives with his audience, discussing and debating issues privately with those of us who thrived on it and at times, conceding that someone else’s valuable perception had been instrumental in evolving his thinking.

His group of friends offered far more than emotional comfort to McKaiser. He sought out and kept the company of studied, opinionated, vociferous critical thinkers who were not afraid to openly challenge him. We did so with the understanding that at the centre of these debates were his insatiable curiosity and passion to continue learning. He simply did not know how to live an insipid life.

Perhaps where he grew up influenced this. Speaking to a close relative of his this week, I sensed that in the Grahamstown of the late seventies into which McKaiser was born, the forces of poverty and lack of opportunity meant his life could easily have been swept away in the detritus of underachievement and aimlessness, like so many others were. He was a child of apartheid, ever conscious of the need to keep treading water, to stay afloat in a system that dragged down even the most promising black children.

I sense that is what his teachers saw in the young McKaiser at Graeme College and later at Rhodes University — a young man who, once he had been let into the secret of his brilliance, became determined to breach all the spaces that had hitherto been shut to people like him with a view to one day occupying a prominent place in them.

McKaiser was at once an intellectual giant and the most vulnerable human being. At one moment he would be offering high-level political analysis to Amanpour, and the next sharing an intimate social media post about the splendour of gay love. At the end, his body may have failed him but his mind never did. What a legacy and challenge to us all: in this dark age of growing anti-intellectualism, be the light that shines through it.

• Joseph is a TV and radio presenter and author.