MFM radio host has taken up the challenge of broadcasting non-stop for four days

An excited Jean Jordaan, a BA Honours student at Stellenbosch University, started the first leg of his marathon broadcast at the institution's Neelsie Food Court at 5pm on Monday and will remain on air for the next four days. He will break only for 15 minutes every three hours. Jordaan said on Monday "I'm very excited and nervous at the same time. At first I thought the idea was crazy, mainly because I've never done anything of this sort before, but because community building is the whole idea behind it, I thought I should go for it". The project was organised by community radio station MFM 92.6, for which Jordaan works as a full-time presenter.

Spokesperson Ruenda Odendaal said they had sold more than 80 percent of time slots to various companies for more than 92 hours this week. The idea for the lengthy broadcast, she said, came up after a brief brainstorming by the station's management on how to raise money to help renovate a stadium in Vraeberg, where more than 500 farmworkers live. The station said it had already raised R25 000 and hoped to double that by Friday. The money would be used to help fix the stadium and build a pavilion that would seat about 500 people, using tyres, chicken wire and mud bricks. Staff from MFM, the community and Happi, an NGO that provides natural building materials, will join forces in the construction. Jordaan, who last slept on Sunday night, said although he did not formally prepare for the broadcast, he was "mentally fit to get through the long hours".