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Jack of all trades joins NTV team

Amidst a whirlwind career including everything from acting and theatre directing to public speaking and teaching, Ashwyn Mberi is ecstatic to join Namibia Media Holdings as a full-time presenter.

Namibia Media Holdings recently launched their TV channel, NTV (DSTV channel 285 and GoTV channel 94), with all-Namibian content created in house.

“I find that there is more structure in presenting, but the rules of acting definitely still apply,” he says.

Mberi believes that his work as a presenter is, for all practical reasons, like taking on another shift at work.

“Being an actor is my core and although presenting is a different type of creative outlet, I enjoy the fact that presenting allows me to be a vessel for important information that people need to know,” he says.

The true-African identity of NTV is a point of pride for Mberi as he explains, “What I like about NTV is that it is a reliable point of reference for all things Namibian and even with shows like Africa Good Morning that has international correspondents all over SADC, it provides an intimate view of Africa and the issues that affect us.”

He believes that NTV’s mandate as a fully Namibian operated television channel will serve as a framework to those looking to build. “I’m so excited for what we have planned at NTV. It will be so great to see NTV’s quest for, not just the broader subject of what it is to be Namibian, but to see us facilitate intricate conversations. It is so exciting to see that embraced not just by Namibia, but by Africa. I think NTV will be a point of reference,” he says.

Despite having big shoes to fill at NTV, Mberi hopes to create a change larger than himself and NTV. “I want to change the national culture of presenting to one that doesn’t exclude us from being the best in Africa,” he says.

He believes that he will have to swim upstream to make the change he wishes to see. “We must change the proclivity to reach for what is accessible and comfortable and start digging deeper below the surface in order to really make a change,” he says.