N EWS
Weekend Post
3
SATU RDAY, OCTOB E R 29, 2011
www.weekendpost.co.za
Playing mom
KB’s best job
TWEETS
WHAT’S TRENDING: WERE ALL A TWITTER
THIS WEEK ABOUT THE ANCYL MARCH
Celeb juggles singing and acting
Shaanaaz de Jager
WEEKEND POST REPORTER
[email protected]
TALENTED BEAUTY: South African songstress Keabetswe Motsilanyane, also known as KB, was in Port Elizabeth to introduce her sixth album Run Free: The Evolution
PHOTOGRAPH: MIKE HOLMES
MULTI-TALENTED entertainer KB
may be a show-stopper, but she loves
nothing more than being a mom to
her young son.
The award-winning R&B singer
and actress, whose real name is Keabetswe Motsilanyane, introduced
her new album, Run Free: The Evolution, and entertained crowds at the
Vodacom Amphitheatre at the
Boardwalk last night. A second show,
scheduled for tomorrow night, has
been cancelled. The 14-track album,
with “elements” of dance, jazz and
R&B, is her sixth.
Balancing motherhood and life as
celebrity is never easy, but the single
mother has managed to cope by
scheduling her live gigs for weekends and spending most weekdays
with five-year-old son Phala.
“I love being a mom. When I am at
home we take walks and play Nintendo. He enjoys jumping on the
trampoline and we make ice-lollies and bake cupcakes,” said
Motsilanyane, who hails
from North West Province.
On the album she collaborates with
hip-hop artist Tuks and also does her
own rendition of the Randy Crawford
classic Streetlife, which was re-arranged and produced by Nigerian
guitarist Kunle.
Motsilanyane is a successful recording artist, stage performer and lead
actress on the popular TV show,
Rhythm City. She also appeared in
the Hollywood blockbuster Ali alongside Will Smith.
She last performed in Port Elizabeth at the Metro FM awards in 2007.
“I love the city. Everyone is so relaxed at the beach.”
Motsilanyane, who is one of five
siblings, said it was difficult to choose
between acting or singing.
“Acting allows me to explore and
interpret the character.
“Singing allows me to tell my own
story.
“It also allows me to meet people.
“With television it starts there and
ends there.
“Both industries are evolving and
have allowed me to create a
platform to grow.”
From dusty Qunu to Big Apple
Madiba’s birthplace also origin of science-fiction writer now based in US
Barbara Hollands
EAST LONDON CORRESPONDENT
[email protected]
SAY the name “Qunu” to any South
African and he will immediately tell
you this is where Nelson Mandela
was born. Tell them it is also the
birthplace of a world-renowned science fiction writer, and the response
is very different indeed.
However there is nothing dubious
about Ken Sibanda and his rise as a
short film director, author and
lawyer from the dusty plains of the
small Eastern Cape village to the
bright lights of New York.
When he left South Africa with
his heart set on becoming a movie
director, sceptics thought he was
crazy. Years later, his track record
speaks for itself with his latest
achievement being the science fiction novel The Return to Gibraltar.
Sibanda was inspired to write by
his father’s collection of Time magazines. “I think I owe more than I
realise to my father’s keen reading
sense,” said the author who spent
the first four years of his life in Qunu,
to which Mandela has returned to
live with wife Graca Machel.
“I am happy I share something in
common with Nelson Mandela and
he has inspired me to follow what I
am passionate about,” said Sibanda,
who met the former president twice
in the 1990s – once in Johannesburg
and again in New York.
A litigation lawyer with a law de-
gree from the University of London
and a Masters in Law from the Temple School of Law in America, he
started writing when he was a
teenager growing up in Zimbabwe,
and published two collections of poetry about democratic change in
South Africa called If God was a Poet and Songs of Soweto: Poems from
a Post Apartheid South Africa by the
time he was 21.
The law degrees were a “plan B”
strategy for the young author.
“When I left Mzansi because I
wanted to become a movie director
everyone thought I was crazy. (Being a lawyer) really helps because in
the film industry you have to know
how to protect creative content.
“I do per diem work now because
‘‘
I think I owe
more than I
realise to my
father’s keen
reading sense
the film work keeps me so busy, but
eventually I will have to hang up my
boots as a lawyer and concentrate
solely on directing,” said Sibanda,
who has appeared as an extra in director Ridley Scott’s American Gangster starring Denzel Washington.
A visit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art where he admired a painting called The Moorish Chief inspired him to write the recently published The Return to Gibraltar in
which an African American man
called Horace Bates travels back in
time to 1491 to help the Moors of
Spain against advancing Christian
campaigns.
“I wrote the book with the intention that it would one day be a
movie and throughout the book I
could see Will Smith playing
Horace Bates. But I am open to
a South African knocking on
my door when it gets to that
stage,” said Sibanda, who is currently pre-producing a movie
about Hannibal Barca, the general
who invaded Rome.
Although his life is firmly entrenched in the US, Sibanda still has
relatives in Qunu and feels a strong
affinity for the village of his birth.
Mohair mojo brings fashion students to Bay
Shaanaaz de Jager
WEEKEND POST REPORTER
[email protected]
TWO Asian fashion students are making the
most of their time in Nelson Mandela Bay to
learn more about mohair – the material they
used to win a design competition in Tokyo.
Xu Xi Yuan, from China, and Ayaka
Hayakawa, from Japan, are both third-year
fashion design students at Nagoya Mode
Gakuen University, and took top honours at
the university’s fashion show in August, earning themselves a trip to South Africa to learn
about the mohair industry. Two of their winning garments were modelled at last night’s
collective fashion show hosted by Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU).
With the help of translator Hikaru Noguchi,
an international fashion designer based in
Grahamstown, the students said they “love
South Africa”.
Xi Yuan was most impressed with the country’s food, while Hayakawa enjoyed the weather, “the beautiful big sky and friendly people”.
Mohair South Africa partnered with Nagoya
Mode Gakuen University two years ago to introduce mohair to Japan’s younger generation. Mohair SA general manager Deon Saay-
man said the organisation had sponsored the
university yarn and fabric.
“During this year’s competition there were
52 students, split into eight groups, with Xu Xi
Yuan and Ayaka Hayakawa winning the competition. Each group designed according to a
theme. The fashion show was well received in
Japan at a prizegiving held at a sumo wrestling
stadium which seats 5 000 people. There were
two shows, and both were sold out.”
Saayman said it was the first time Mohair
SA had brought the winners to South Africa.
“We thought this year it would be a good opportunity to combine the designers with those
working on similar projects at NMMU.”
There were 10 garments from Japan on the
ramp last night.
“We realised the younger generation didn’t
know much about mohair and it was important to instill this knowledge.”
Hayakawa said she had learnt a great deal
about the animals from her time in the Eastern
Cape, which would make her aware of what
was quality product in the future. “The material is very shiny and luxurious. It’s good for
grown-ups and can be made more affordable
for young people,” Hayakawa said.
Xi Yuan said she now had a better understanding of mohair. “It’s beautiful and can be
used in different ways.”
Stuntman killed on movie set
NEW YORK – A stuntman working on
Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables
sequel has died following an accident on
set, and a second man is in a critical
condition in hospital.
The movie follow-up, starring Stallone
alongside Bruce Willis, Arnold
Schwarzenegger and Jean-Claude Van
Damme, is currently being filmed in
Bulgaria, but the shoot came to a halt on
Thursday after a stunt went badly wrong.
The film crew was shooting an explosion
scene at the Ognyanovo reservoir, close to
the capital city of Sofia, when tragedy
struck. One man was killed and another
was taken to hospital, where he was in a
critical condition. According to
Deadline.com, local police have launched
an investigation into the incident.
A statement from production company
Nu Image/Millennium Films reads, “It is
with great regret that we confirm this
unfortunate accident. Our hearts go out to
the families and those on the production
affected by this tragedy. The filmmakers are
working closely with the authorities in
responding to and investigating this
© Ananova
accident.”
Boy George left fuming over hat
PARIS – Boy George was left fuming on the
red carpet of the International Rome Film
Festival in Italy on Thursday after a reporter
knocked off his hat.
The Culture Club frontman was attending
the event for the premiere of The Lady, a film
about democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi.
The star made his way down the red
carpet to speak to journalists, and stopped
to speak to a presenter from the country's
Demand for
sex on plane
JOHANNESBURG – A
woman teacher was
facing jail yesterday
after admitting that she
had groped a Virgin
Atlantic steward at
33 000ft and demanded
sex from him. Katherine
Goldberg, 25, also
admitted being drunk
aboard an aircraft.
She grabbed hold of the
man’s groin during a
flight from
Johannesburg to
Heathrow. Goldberg, of
Ealing Common, west
London, was committed
for sentencing to Crown
Court by Uxbridge
magistrates, who said
they felt they had
insufficient powers to
deal with the severity of
the offence.
© Times online
satirical show Le Iene, who knocked a
flamboyant green hat off the singer's head.
A red-faced Boy George quickly put his
headwear back on, before reportedly leaning
over to chastise the smirking culprit.
The singer is not the first celebrity to be
pranked by the show's stars. Le Iene's Elena
Di Cioccio stunned David Beckham last
year by grabbing his crotch during a TV
© Ananova
interview.
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Loyiso Gola Comedian
At #ancylmarch it's on. Zuma
has lost this round. Zuma 0 –
malema 1. It's on
––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Jack Devnarain Actor
#ancyl march was monumental
effort to succeed at being symbolic. Don't underestimate Juju's capacity to undermine this
newfound credibility
––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Shahan Ramkissoon eNews
journalist
stopped walking & hopped into a
truck for the "economic freedom" march he's leading
––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DJFresh 5FM DJ
Cops demand R1m for ANCYL
march
––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Arno Carstens Singer/songwriter
Has the ANCYL march changed
your opinion of Julius Malema?
How? No amount of walking
changes the dangerous views he
holds. Agree.
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Rob Byrne’s SABC2 traffic
thank you @phillipdewet for the
effort (kilometres) and coverage
you provided during yesterday's
#ancylmarch great job
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