Morning television is not easy, says Leanne Manas

My great-grandmother would say “a good day shows itself from the morning”.

Leanne Manas has been South Africa’s good day every morning for the past 20 years.

The anchor on South Africa’s longest-running breakfast show, Morning Live on SABC2, has been a consistent presence on our screens and deserves all the accolades she has received for her broadcasting excellence.

The reason is evident from the minute we sit down for lunch at Sec, the secret gem of a fine dining restaurant at Clico Hotel in Rosebank. Leanne is exactly the same person she is on the box. Turns out people like consistency in their morning anchors.

Let’s face it, you are vulnerable before the first cup of coffee, tender from the abrupt engagement with the new day. So you want to know what you are getting on your TV. And that is Leanne Manas — always forthright, bright, engaging and straight as an arrow. Why would you want to wake up to anyone else?

Certainly, that’s the thinking at the SABC, where — even when she was a rookie financial journo at the start of her broadcasting career — they kept on wanting to step it up with her and get her on the morning show. It is testament to her character that she said no the first time they asked. She politely declined, saying she had more to learn and was not ready. Imagine! If more people pressed pause on their egos until they were ready, where would we be?

Being seen for your talent and hard work and potential is a beautiful feeling

The next time they asked was a few months later. They paired Leanne with the late great Vuyo Mbuli to cover the elections, and the rest is broadcasting history. They made magic together, and the second time they asked her to helm the morning show with him she agreed.

We are now experiencing four wonderful dishes that one of Joburg’s finest chefs, Dario D’Angeli, is thrilling us with. Sec has a light Mediterranean feel with a fine-dining gourmet touch. The atmosphere is joyful and refreshingly casual.

I ask Leanne if she has watched The Morning Show with Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon.

“I started, but it was a bit too close to the bone; she loses her co-anchor. I saw what she went through, and I was like, 'Oh gosh no, this is a bit too close', because I know what I was going through at the time Vuyo passed away, and I had to carry on. So I just wasn't enjoying it. But it is accurate. Morning television, it’s not easy.”

She has woken up before 4.30am every day for the past 20 years. That is discipline. 

I wonder if this born and bred Joburger of Lebanese extraction was always set on this path.

“It came from debating. And that was something that I learnt to do because I was never very confident. And that was where my mom said, 'We need to get you into a small school because you're disappearing’. I was very shy and I just wouldn’t speak out, and I was honestly not using myself to the best potential. Thankfully, my mom saw that and moved me out of that, put me into De La Salle [College]. And it just helped me, a lot more space to just be myself.

“And then I started enjoying the platform, and I was doing speech and drama, and acting and I was public speaking ... And then I realised, oh, man, maybe I should go into that kind of field, of not acting necessarily, but I was very good at acting as well. And that was where that love started.” 

It was not plain sailing after her liberal arts degree. She was working at 702, where she was definitely much more than a face for radio, but was not being given the opportunity to grow. Once she got to the SABC her career flourished.

What lessons has she learnt? “I don't even know where to begin, but I think one of the biggest lessons was that I just knew that it doesn’t matter how good you were, you’re never gonna get ahead. So maybe the lesson is, know when it’s your time to step away because you could be the best, but if people don’t want to see you, just walk away.” 

It was a scary step, but the right one.

“I was very lucky that when I moved I got to a place where people started seeing me, and there is no better feeling than being recognised. Not because you back-stabbed someone, or said something about someone, or got into the right faction of people, or did something with someone to get a job, none of that. Being seen for your talent and hard work and potential is a beautiful feeling. 

“And that's how I find myself here 20 years later. I led with who I am and what I am.” 

It is at the core of who she is, and probably why she resonates with such a wide audience.

“Just keep it real; I don’t try to pretend to be something that I’m not. Just be real; this is me, this is what you get.”