In the early 1990's Makhanya worked as a general reporter for the Weekly Mail, which was what the the Mail&Guardian was then known as, before completing an internship at Newsweek magazine in New York.
From 1994 he ran the Cape Town bureau for the Weekly Mail, and then spent three years at The Star, serving as a political writer, deputy news editor and executive editor. He did a stint at the Sunday World before joining the Sunday Times.
Trevor Ncube, CEO of M&G Media Limited, said: "Mondli is young and he carries no baggage. He is intelligent and independent minded."
