Whatever your stage be of service
i’ve been on many stages
in the course of my life i’ve been on
small stages
i’ve been on big stages i was born for
the stage
you might say my dear mother beatrice
noam aziz and makalemele
a teacher by profession entered me
in my very first beauty pageant at the
age of 15.
miss helio a shoe shop and i won
i want a pair of shoes my mother goes on
to enter me into the misawada
competition in 1990
and i win some miss away to competition
as miss awatu
i qualified to enter miss black south
africa now let me tell you this
pre-1994 black people we were not
allowed to enter miss south africa
so i wouldn’t misplace south africa
i come from a great generation
where parents believed in the power
of their children’s dreams
fast forward 1994
my mother yet again enters me
into the south africa competition
now i win miss south africa
i reflect on winning with south africa
at critical time in our history
1994 first democratic elections
new dawn a new era a new hope a new hour
a new government led by their first
black president
nelson holy sacha mandela
i then reflected on the zeitgeist
of me winning in 1994
and i understood the responsibility
that i had to make it count
so i could inspire a new generation what
a black girl child can achieve
i get the greatest privilege to be
invited to the union buildings
the seat of power in south africa by the
president
himself i had the privilege to travel
with him
to proceed him and introduce him before
he took to the stage
to deliver his keynote addresses his
magnanimity was not only in his stature
it was in his aura
he impacted my life in so many ways his
humility i saw what humility looks like
and often when you would thank madiba
and say
dada thank you thank you
for fighting for liberation he would
often say darling
it was a collective effort you might say
i was born for the stage or
was i it’s a question i have often
pondered
it’s a question i often ask myself
1994 november
i go and to enter this world
south africa comes second at the miss
world competition
i came second at the miss world
competition
we as a country came second
at the miss world competition i’m on
stage
the crown allows me to travel the world
i become the first black
television presenter of the preeminent
lifestyle show top billing traveled the
world
seven continents i interviewed the
world’s greats
oprah winfrey michael jackson
will smith wesley snipes darto huma
siguella
mamawi nemati gizella mandela i
interviewed
all south african presidents i
interviewed
luther vandross my all-time favorite
i was so gutted when he passed
i actually wanted to go to his funeral i
started my first business
at the age of 20 zolobili productions
with a partner
it created hundreds of jobs
i went on to start another business
retail spectacular failure
paid serious school fees
i joined my sister johanna in a travel
management company travel with flair
we employed hundreds of people over the
years
and then i decided how about we try
property so i strike studied a property
development company now the hundreds of
jobs were created
15 years ago i started a mining company
together with a partner
and in that company first five years
were hugely challenging
taken for a ride by international
partners
and that journey
i paid serious school fees
i thought about quitting
but then i said to myself but you do not
have a choice
or an option to quit
you have a responsibility to use the
platform use the stage
for the greater good and so
we trust along and
today that company mines
and exports called to international
markets creating
hundreds of jobs
now i i love telling stories
and then i started yet another business
a content hub creating business connect
channel
and in that business hundreds of people
are employed we tell stories
these businesses over the last 26 years
have made an indelible mark in creating
jobs
and hopefully making a difference
because i’ve decided to show up on stage
and use that platform this platform for
the greater good
i have learned to be a serial
entrepreneur in my mother’s home
my father being the bus driver my mother
being a teacher
were very very entrepreneurial they
started a construction company in the
hood
well lived in four roomed houses not
four bedrooms
four room my siblings and i had one
bedroom
bunk beds that we used to share we have
a younger brother muja lefa
and then my parents had their bedroom so
when you made a bit of money you would
then
extend your home adding additional rooms
and big windows now the big windows were
a big deal
because you know what the apartment
system put us in little windows and i
think perhaps it was
to make sure that we don’t see our
potential and do not see the world
what it is and what we can achieve so
you break down those windows and you put
you put in
big windows and then if you made a
little bit more money
you would then put two rooms in a garage
at the back and then rent those out
for additional income for the household
so my parents did that for many many
homes in their
in the neighborhood and then if we’re
not
working and selling ice cream at soccer
stadiums
selling sandwiches my siblings are not
helping to supplement
the family income you were in the church
choir the youth club
you name it my mother got us involved in
all sorts of extracurricular activities
and it was because
she firmly believed that an idol mind is
a dangerous thing
we were busy at home i started to work
with money from an early age at the age
of six
and it’s robert kiyosaki who says teach
your children to work with money from an
early age
and so the serial entrepreneur
was born in my mother’s house i do not
know
how not to work i’ve never been employed
i’ve always been self-employed
i have stood on many stages in the
course of my life
i’ve stood on small stages i’ve stood in
big stages
you might say i was born for the stage
where was i it’s a question
i have pondered it’s a question i will
often ask myself
but living on stage comes at a price
you live under scrutiny in a glass bowl
where whatever you do makes headlines
so your struggles
are on front page news your challenges
are written about it often seems that
does this believe that public figures
do not hurt do not feel pain they do not
cry
they have no emotions
2008 december
i was pregnant with twins at 20 weeks a
boy and a girl
i have often struggled with fertility
i started to have contract contractions
and my husband took me to hospital
as i admitted and
put on drips to try and mature my baby’s
lungs
and
my heart rate was dropping rapidly i was
losing consciousness
and the doctor said to my husband romeo
quite a handsome guy
a decision has to be made very quickly
because i was losing consciousness and
therefore
i said to my husband listen i’ve lived
so let the babies be born
and i know you’re a good man you look
after them
and he said that is not even an option
he signed a consent form
and i was given an option
whether i would want to have a c-section
or labor i chose the ladder
we were put in the labor room
and because my babies were not pushing
i took hours
and when they were born the nurse said
to me
would you like to see them
but they’re only 500 grams so
there would be a size of a block of
butter
and i said maybe not
it’s a decision
i regret it
i could not put closure
i battled
i have had a total of seven miscarriages
i went to depression for ten years
you get discharged from hospital
and every post
in the streets headlines
pasadena loses a baby
suzanne has health scare you read
you read about yourself at the darkest
hour in your life
grace visited me
i have three beautiful children
uncle cinati gabriel
ushaga crositsila emmanuel
and buenarena jasmine but then
i also have what i term
children of my heart
through the basasana mentorship academy
where over the last 26 years i have
mentored
many young men and women it’s about
lighting someone else’s candle so that
they too can light another candle
and then that candle lights another
candle
and then we become this
beautiful universe of light
i understand my calling and my higher
purpose
and i try to show up for it every single
day i have a responsibility
to ignite hope
to inspire a new generation of leaders
to bring
others along to make it count
that i was once here
it is steve jobs who says that trust
and know where you are going and only
when you are there
then you will connect the dots so you
have to trust
that the dots will connect in the future
i have a multiple fracture in 2016
i have 11 pins on my right ankle and two
long plates
bedridden on a wheelchair
and when i was admitted in hospital
i was also in hospital and when she
heard that i’m
in hospital she called for me
and the nurse and a friend of mine
patience they wheeled me
into her room and when she saw me in a
wheelchair
she said but you cannot be in this chair
there’s much work to be done you have to
get up you and other young women
have a responsibility to make a
difference in the country
there’s no time to sit down and sit
around
she charged me
and i took to heart that charge
and i show up for it every single day
today is a full circle moment
on stage the tedx stage
and it is by no means an end but a bold
continuation
of the work that needs to be done
i have work to do you have work to do
i do not walk alone
i come alone but i stand
as ten thousand i invoke the spirit
of unomaze i invoke the spirit
of uprafil i invoke the spirit of
umatiba
invoked the spirit of umami pneumatic
isella mandela
i invoked the spirit of the men and
women
who’ve impacted my life some departed
some present i invoke
the spirit of my ancestors
i invoke the spirit
of my departed children
i have stood on many stages in the
course of my life
i’ve been on small stages and have been
on big stages
you might say i was born for the stage
or was i
it’s a question i have pondered
it’s a question i’ve often asked myself
whatever it is i have decided
to show up for it i have decided to
raise my hands
martin luther once said not everyone can
be famous
but everyone can be great because
greatness is determined
by service
what is your stage
thank you