Eusebius McKaiser (28 March 1978 – 30 May 2023) was a South African political analyst, journalist, and broadcaster. Among others, he wrote for the ''

Mail & Guardian The ''Mail & Guardian'', formerly the ''Weekly Mail'', is a South African weekly newspaper and website, published by M&G Media in Johannesburg, South Africa. It focuses on political analysis, investigative reporting, Southern African news, loca ...

'', the ''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'', ''

Foreign Policy Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...

'', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', and ''

Business Day A business day normally means any day except a legal holiday. It may also mean a business day of operation, any of the days an organization operates. It depends on the local workweek which is dictated by local customs, religions, and business ...

'', for which he wrote a weekly

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

. He gained prominence as a

Radio 702 702 or (Talk Radio 702) is a commercial FM radio station based in Johannesburg, South Africa, broadcasting on FM 92.7 and FM 106 to the greater Gauteng province. The station is also webcast via its website. It claims to be Johannesburg's numb ...

talk show A talk show is a television programming, radio programming or podcast genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show', pp.3-4Erler, Robert (201 ...

host, and also wrote three books about South African politics and society.

Life and career

Eusebius McKaiser was born on 28 March 1978, in

Grahamstown Makhanda, formerly known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 75,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Gqeberha and southwest of East London. It is the largest town in the Makana Local Mun ...

Cape Province The Province of the Cape of Good Hope (), commonly referred to as the Cape Province () and colloquially as The Cape (), was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequently the Republic of South Africa. It encompassed the old Cape Co ...

, where his

working-class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

family lived in a

coloured Coloureds () are multiracial people in South Africa, Namibia and, to a smaller extent, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Their ancestry descends from the interracial mixing that occurred between Europeans, Africans and Asians. Interracial mixing in South ...

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

. He attended St Mary's Primary School and

Graeme College Graeme College is a public English medium high school for boys located in Makhanda (Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It caters for boys from Grade 00 to Grade 12 and offers both boarding and day options to its pupil ...

, and matriculated from the latter in 1996. From 1997, he attended

Rhodes University Rhodes University () is a public research university located in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province. Established in 1904, Rhodes University is the prov ...

, graduating with distinction with a bachelor's degree in law and philosophy, an

honours degree Honours degree has various meanings in the context of different degrees and education systems. Most commonly it refers to a variant of the undergraduate bachelor's degree containing a larger volume of material or a higher standard of study, ...

, and, in 2003, a master's degree in philosophy, with a thesis on moral objectivity. Between 2005 and 2006, he attended the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

(

St Antony's College St Antony's College is a colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1950 as the result of the gift of French merchant Sir Antonin Besse of Aden, St Antony's specialises in intern ...

) on a

Rhodes Scholarship The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world. Established in 1902, it is ...

, where he received a BPhil and did doctoral research – never completed – under Ralph Wedgwood and John Broome, also in

moral philosophy Ethics is the philosophical study of moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches include normative ethics, applied et ...

. He was also an

Oppenheimer J. Robert Oppenheimer (born Julius Robert Oppenheimer ; April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist who served as the director of the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II. He is often ...

Memorial Trust Scholar. McKaiser later worked as an associate consultant at

McKinsey & Company McKinsey & Company (informally McKinsey or McK) is an American multinational strategy and management consulting firm that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. Founded in 1926 by James O. McKinse ...

, and by 2012 was a political and social analyst at the Wits Centre for Ethics and at the

University of Johannesburg The University of Johannesburg, colloquially known as UJ, is a public university A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is State ownership, owned by the state or receives significant fundi ...

Centre for the Study of Democracy. The first radio show he hosted at Radio 702 was a weekly late-night talk show called ''Politics and Morality.'' He hosted the

SABC 3 SABC 3, also branded as S3, is a South African free-to-air television channel owned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). Since March 2024, it carries programming in English and Afrikaans only. History On 1 January 1982, two tel ...

current affairs programme ''Interface'' until 2011, and later anchored 702's ''Talk@9'' show on week nights. When

Power FM Capital South Coast was a regional radio station owned by operated by Global Radio as part of the Capital (radio network), Capital radio network. It broadcast to Hampshire from studios in Segensworth, Fareham. In 2019, Capital South Coast was r ...

launched on 18 June 2013, he began as host of ''Power Talk'', a three-hour weekday morning talk show. In October 2014, he left Power FM – according to the station, due to insoluble disagreements between him and the station – and returned to Radio 702 in July 2016, taking over from Redi Thlabi with a weekday morning talk slot. According to the ''Mail & Guardian'', through his radio work, McKaiser had "etched himself on the national psyche" by 2013. Pumla Dineo Gqola later said that his morning show on 702, the ''Eusebius McKaiser Show'', "shaped everyday dialogue and, with it, the culture of our time," and compliment McKaiser's "heartbreaking, illuminating and often joyful intellectual work." McKaiser left

in June 2020, because the station had not been prepared to dedicate adequate resources to the production of his show. He then hosted a podcast called ''In the Ring'' and, on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

, an

Exclusive Books Exclusive Books is one of South Africa's largest bookselling chains with stores throughout South Africa, and one store in Gaborone, Botswana and one in Windhoek, Namibia. As of 1 December 2013, the chain is owned and operated by a private group ...

show about books called ''Cover to Cover''. McKaiser died due to a suspected

epileptic seizure A seizure is a sudden, brief disruption of brain activity caused by abnormal, excessive, or synchronous neuronal firing. Depending on the regions of the brain involved, seizures can lead to changes in movement, sensation, behavior, awareness, o ...

on 30 May 2023, at age 45.

Bibliography

* McKaiser, Eusebius (2012). ''A

Bantu Bantu may refer to: *Bantu languages, constitute the largest sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages *Bantu peoples, over 400 peoples of Africa speaking a Bantu language * Bantu knots, a type of African hairstyle *Black Association for National ...

in My Bathroom!: Debating Race, Sexuality and Other Uncomfortable South African Topics''. Bookstorm. . * McKaiser, Eusebius (2014). ''Could I Vote DA?: A Voter's Dilemma''. Bookstorm. . * McKaiser, Eusebius (2016). ''Run Racist Run: Journeys into the Heart of Racism''. Bookstorm. .

Awards

* 2010: ''Mail & Guardian's'' 200 Young South Africans list * 2011: World Masters Debate Champion * 2012: Rhodes University Emerging Old Rhodian Award

References

External links

''Mail & Guardian'' articles

''Business Day'' articles

''Sunday Times'' articles

''Foreign Policy'' articles

''Cover to Cover'' episodes

Academic publications at ResearchGate

"A Bantu in my bathroom!"
(excerpt from ''A Bantu in My Bathroom'')
"Affirmative action: a force for good or racism's friend?"
(excerpt from ''A Bantu in My Bathroom'') {{DEFAULTSORT:McKaiser, Eusebius 1978 births 2023 deaths Alumni of Graeme College Former Roman Catholics 20th-century South African LGBTQ people 21st-century South African LGBTQ people South African agnostics South African gay writers South African LGBTQ journalists South African LGBTQ broadcasters South African Rhodes Scholars People from Makhanda, Eastern Cape Rhodes University alumni South African radio presenters Gay journalists Coloureds Deaths from epilepsy