With his down-to-earth demeanor, TheHansManZA is the streaming world’s meat and potatoes, and you’ll keep going back for more.
His passion for gaming and his big heart shines through in his streams, whether he’s streaming for pleasure or for a cause (Gamers Streaming For SACAA).
TheHansManZA is a family man who turned his interest into a streaming career, and he appears to be having a great time doing it. His enthusiasm for gaming is evident in his streams.
His friendly and welcoming energy radiates from the very first time you tune in to his stream, he is engaging with his audience and makes you feel like you have been his friend for years, given this welcoming air we naturally wanted to know more about him.
We caught up with him and this is how our interview went down.
We always start our interviews by asking who this streamer is in their daily life and what their backstory is, so we asked…
Who is TheHansManZA and what is your backstory?
“I never really had a fixed name, as never were a really big gamer (never was allowed in my home, aside from coming from not so wealthy home), The Gaming/Tech bug really only started nibbling prior to 2008/2009 while I was still in high school where a friend of mine’s dad has bought him, his brother, and the dad himself a computer.
We used to go to him every Friday after school and play various games together as myself and another friend rotated play time. His brother finally matriculated and studied in the IT industry during my time in high school.
And with this notion, I asked my friend what a motherboard is and how it works, and he, being the good guy that he is, imparted the information to me and my other friends with some old boards that were hanging around, and I believe this is when the bug bit me later in grade 11. (Standard 9) I was, after all, in a High-Grade Computer Study class.
We didn’t have a proper teacher to teach us programming, so a newly made friend took some extra classes over time, and of course, I picked up bits and pieces from him.
We didn’t get a proper teacher until matric, and by the third school term, learning what we should have learned over two years was just too short with the final exam around the corner.
We eventually all failed with a few like my friend that had the extra classes were able to pass, but the failure was not the end as I was intrigued by the way it worked I further went on to study programming and chose the exact same language I failed as the language of choice.
But this short 1 year course sadly got hindered by further financial issues at home, and since I only had 1 exam left, I asked the college I was doing the course at if I could come back to complete the exam at a later stage, in my favor at the time they said yes, and then it was off to find work.
I started off in retail sales, I eventually managed to get my hands on an Xbox 360 and started playing some games casually and having a second controller Would invite my friend over so we can Jam games together, and he recommended I get Fifa as we watched soccer sometimes at his house as well, while I was enjoying COD and other games more I decided to get it and we played, him beating me every time of course, then I heard about playing online.
Sheeeeesh back then one had to hack the world if you did not have internet, Having only 3G, relatively poor reception share the connection, connect Xbox to the laptop for internet and there we go the online global world opened. I then started playing Fifa more and more online, and eventually landed in the top-tier leagues, still hated the fact when you beating somebody they turned off their consoles but such is life haha.
The company that I was working for then invited me to play some indoor cricket with them as they had a man short, this is where the name started sticking So they use to call me Hansie, and then at work started calling me Hans(sound like a Z at the end) and eventually some oak called me Hans Man and the name was born as TheHansMan.
At first some places wanted numbers at the end and some well didn’t care, so my lucky number is 5. I added that at the end but in double for a while, then Saw a few guys adding a ZA tag to their names(a few years later) I decided to add the Tag and complete the name once and for all. The streaming side only started when we got hit by covid, and we had to partake in salary cuts.
As a single parent, my priority is to ensure that my child attends school and learns something, while we (which gets him really thrilled) get his hair cut and go to Mc Donalds at the start of each month, or go on trips to show him some beautiful areas and expose him to what is around us.
I know the future may hold a lot of mystery, and knowing what I can do and would be able to do I am just happy I chose to start this journey.”
What is your role in the gaming community?
“This is a difficult question to answer as I sadly do get very little time for gaming as much as I want to.
Although if referring to the community or better yet the South African Gaming / Streaming Community,I would like to work towards becoming an influencer of some sort and showing people that we are all in this together and I may share some common vision with another great streamer where currently the Stream circle MAP just has too much US and Spanish players, and it is time get our Flag into that circle as well.”
What is your favorite genre of game?
“I would say that during the last few years that I have had the opportunity to play games, my favorites have been Sport/Racing/FPS/Survival/Strategy games.
The two games that I could claim provided the highest value for money are Red Dead Redemption 2 and Mad Max: Fury Road (Yes, the game exists on Steam).”
What is your preferred gaming platform?
“Another difficult question, as consoles have their exclusives which are not always available on PC, for time being it will be PC.”
What is your favorite thing about gaming?
“I may not really have fitted in with Family, and the majority of groups of people, and it was my little escape realm during hard times, it then showed me how it makes people connect and build friendships even when being worlds apart from one another.”
What are your current projects and what do you have planned?
“I have been working on bits and pieces on a few things, though my highest priority will be the online course that I would like to push out on 3 online learning platforms, this essentially would be what will fund my sideline work and ensure that a great percentage goes into my son’s account which I will invest and by the time he is bigger, he will not have the same struggles I had.
As for Streaming I would love to start looking at doing it more than I am currently though I have a kid to take care of and can’t just step into doing this full time yet, nor be able to put something into the Studio yet due to financial reasons.
I have been happy looking after and assisting some streamers with some technical difficulties they have been having so may just consider selling it as a service which could also expand on funds for the studio, Sponsorships are open at this stage.
The one ongoing Project is assisting and helping as many members as possible at “The Clique” (owner/founder: CrankyMaiden) with any issues they may stumble upon and helping to build a safe platform for the creators within the Community.
I’d also like to have some little known music artists with wonderful music to be able to share their music and generate the attraction for them to flourish as artists, as well as some other funky, ideas that I’m looking forward to, but are restricted at the moment.
As for the future, no one can truly plan because technology and the world we live in are constantly evolving; however, you can set a long-term goal and, as my uncle used to say, you must have flags along the way to your goal; this only made sense when I realized that small accomplishments lead to big ones. All I can really say is that I look forward to what the future may hold.”
There you have it, folks, eloquently put from the man that makes you feel like a friend while you’re watching his various content from Twitch Streams To his YouTube videos.
If you are intrigued and want to catch a stream that’s comfortable, enjoyable, and entertaining at the same time you can check out TheHansManZA on his socials below:
TheHansManZA Socials:
Twitch: https://twitch.tv/TheHansManZA
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/Thehansmanzao1/
YouTube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCaQ_PIiGHgSISBLjVJAG5eA