NOTHEMBA

10 THINGS ABOUT NOTHEMBA:

What three words best describe your personality?

Caring, cautious and tough (with a sense of humour!)

What really irritates you?

People who blame others for things they do wrong to themselves.

Is there a book that has changed your life and why?

The title and author I have since forgotten, but it was a Native-American philosophy that resonated with me which was the awareness of the inseparable relationship between all human beings and all forms of creation and that God is not abstract but is all that he created. So if I hurt you and make you suffer, it’s God I am hurting.

Who has been the person who inspired you the most and why?

Clichéd as it might sound, my mother and father were the best thing that ever happened to me, I can only dream and aspire to be the people they are to me. (Both have passed on now but still keep me inspired to approach life the way they did).

Who is the one person you would love to interview (and haven’t yet done so)?

President Thabo Mbeki, to unravel the mystery he is to me not as a president but on a personal level.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

Always ask if you don’t know.

What music do you listen to?

Everything and jazz in particular.

Your greatest extravagance?

My home and music

Three dinner guests?

My mother – would love her take on all that is SA today (she died when I was a teenager); Desmond Tutu – not that we would have much dinner, with all the laughing going on and the late Oscar Peterson – one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time, so he can play on my baby grand after dinner.

What gives you hope about South Africa?

That we know and have experienced how bad things can be and we never want to go through that ever again.