EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

HER MEDIUM Thami Ngubeni has made a habit out of colonising any form of media she tries her hand at. Over the years she’s read news on Metro FM, produced for TV alongside the likes of the legendary Disney organisation, been a judge for the International Emmy Awards, gone on retreat with Deepak Chopra, graced local screens in top soapies like SABC1’s Generations, written, produced, edited… the list is endless. She can count local magazine legend Jane Raphaely as one of her mentors and boasts a little black book with names and numbers from both sides of the Atlantic.
HER MESSAGE Simply this: create the life you want to live.
To read the full version of this story, go to page 22 of the January issue.

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10 THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT THAMI NGUBENI
We find out what makes our cover star Thami Ngubeni tick
BY CARA BOUWER

1. Her favourite movies: "The Matrix, Pretty Woman, Ghost and La Vie en Rose."
2. The music she loves: "Kurt Engelbrecht's Please Release Me, Etta James' At Last, Edith Piaf's If You Love Me, Really Love Me (Hymne a L'Amour) and a whole lot of her other songs as well. I love Celine Dion, some of Miriam Makeba's stuff, Lira, Michael Jackson and Brenda Fassie. Thandiso Mazwai has some lovely songs too. I also love a lot of the music of Sipho Sithole. Gospel music is my rock - I won't single out any artists, but the local talent is amazing, especially when they choose to sing our traditional hymns in vernacular. You can feel the presence of the divine right there and then!"
3. Her favourite holiday destination: "I've got a few, depending on how I feel. I like New York, because I love Broadway. But I think the best holiday place for me is at home. When I'm on holiday, I don't really want to travel: I just want to be with the people I love and chill with them. Doing nothing is blissful. Just a state of nothingness - it's beautiful!"
4. Her best investment: "I've never been a spender. My first car was a Toyota Corolla and I drove it to death. I've invested in property and it's appreciated handsomely over the years."
5. Her favourite perfumes: "It depends on the season. I love Gucci by Gucci. But I also like Clinique's Happy - it's a light, summery fragrance. And Clarins' Eau Dynamisante, which is a classic, like Aromantics. Agent Provocateur is quite nice as well."
6. Her favourite restaurant: "It's not necessarily my favourite, but it stands out for me: there's a little café in Cape Town called Zorina's in Loop Street, where they serve the best mutton curry. I cook when I'm in a relationship - when I'm in love!"
7. The people she'd love to meet: "I'd like to sit with the Dalai Lama and Sir Richard Branson, and spend more time with Madiba. I wish I could have met Mother Teresa. I'd also love to meet Michelle Obama and Credo Mutwa [the Zulu shaman]. But I don't want to talk to these people: I just want to be a fly on the wall and watch them doing what they always do. I also want to be part of their thought processes. I don't want them to interpret what they do or why, I just don't want a barrier. And I want to be with all the individuals who've been a catalyst for change through the generations, from Martin Luther King to Steve Biko."
8. Her personal brand of meditation involves...: "Transcendental meditation. But there are different types of meditation, with different processes. Mantra meditation is what I do a lot; you repeat the mantra to yourself in your head, in silence, and then focus on that. Before you know it, you're focusing beyond the focus."
9. Her secret vice: "That depends on whether the sweet cupboard is full! If not, I can live without them. I do love ice-lollies, Bollywood (one day I'll do a movie with Shar Rukh Khan), the sound of children laughing or playing ... oh, and sleep!"
10. The language that makes her go weak at the knees: "The unspoken acts of love, appreciation and selfless service which, when experienced, fill you with immeasurable gratitude and humility. As for spoken words, I studied some French at school. It's a romantic language, but no more romantic than Venda. For me Venda's one of the most romantic languages to listen to. It's very poetic and rhythmic, and the words seem to roll of the tongue. My late stepfather, Bra Joe, was Venda. I loved that man."