GLAMOUR: Mutually beneficial partnerships formed to produce memorable epic polo event…

By Priscilla Malinga

Fashion, food, entertainment, and a great outdoor weather at this year’s Heineken All-Invitational Polo event held at the prestigious Inanda Club in Sandton previous Sunday.

In partnership with Mercedes Benz and QMS Medicosmetics, L’Or Espresso and Tanqueray hosted the glamourous polo all invitational event, where guests consisting of media and TV personalities, influencers and stake holders met to enjoy and network under the sun watching a game of kings and queens. Also in attendance were representatives of the sports industry.

This year, for the first time, the organisers lined up a mixed doubles polo match with women coming on board as competitors. The highly anticipated match pencilled a 5-10 score with the QMW team claiming victory for the day.

The guest list boasted personalities such as Babalwa Mneno, The Mommy’s Club stars Happy Simelane and Ratile Mabitsela. Also spotted the award-winning designer and founder of the MaXhosa brand, Laduma and actress Khanya Mkangisa.

Marcel Swain, Heineken’s head of marketing, saidHeineken became a part of the event as a consequence being positioned as a showcase of diversity and inclusion.

“We have mixed doubles which is male and female matches,” says Swain. “We have QMS and Mercedes Benz as partners and it is a no brainer as they are premium partners and bringing Polo to Johannesburg. The event also opened to the public as they sold the tickets to those wanting to attend.

“It was very easy to partner with other sponsors and Mercedes Benz drove the guests around in QS 45’s and partnering with them has been such a dream,” says Swain.

QMS also came on board as they handled the payment for the ticket sales. They were planning on continuing the partnership and would also look at who wants to join in for the future.

MOVING TRIBUTES TO MULTITALENTED PRINCESS KHANYISA

Allrounder: A singer, guitarist, composer, lyricist, playwright, actress  of distinction…

By Victor Mecoamere

Superlatives flowed during a celebration of the colourful life of Princess Khanyisa, a versatile entertainer who died after an illness recently, at the State Theatre in Pretoria on Wednesday.

A songstress and guitarist likened to the legendary Joan Armatrading and Tracy Chapman, Princess Khanyisa was born Princess Thandi Tshabangu in Pretoria and was also a traditional healer, composer, songwriter, playwright, actor and stage director.

As an actress, she notably featured in author Mongane Serote’s Fresh Footprints, a one-hander which was directed by highly respected thespian and Olive Tree Theatre founder Ntshieng Mokgoro. Her music was a fusion of soul, blues, African jazz and Reggae.

Off stage, she composed music and musical scores for several films and television shows, including Isibaya, Smoke and Mirrors, the film Induku by author Sayitsheni Mdakhi and Thabo Khambule’s feature film, Margarine, which was shown on Amazon Prime, and for which she was nominated for the William Taylor Best Score Award for Feature Film in 2022.

Themba Mkhoma, who was also Princess Khanyisa’s fiancé and directed Princess Khanyisa in a starring role in the play, Angel in a Blue Dress, in 2005, told Weekly SA Mirror that “on the outside, she was always cool and calm, but inside there was an astonishing giant, and when she was on stage, she was a true goddess.”

Mkhoma said between 2014 and her untimely death recently, she had excelled as a formidable all-rounder who touched many lives with her humility, healthy sense of humour, spirituality, strategic nous and generosity of spirit.

Mokgoro said she worked with his spouse in several productions – including Fresh Footprints – from 2012, and added she was actually“reserved, a very private person, an artist of good note, a good poet, brilliant stage performer, someone who was dedicated to the arts, one who was very spiritual.”

Musician Sol Shibambo said, “She was very private as an individual, quite talented as an artist, and especially spiritual, while her music transcended many barriers, as it had liberating rhythms and it was therapeutic.”

Brother Kenny said she was humble, kind, exuded grace. “We always used to appreciate how she loved to share her ideas with other artists. She was a committed artist, who was also powerful on the guitar, and the path she has laid as an artist is worth emulating.”

Company executive Tsepo Monaledi said, “She was an exceptional artist who was always willing to share her artistry. She had a wonderful networking ethic.”

Veteran television and film actor Jerry Tsie said the actress was classy in her artistic craft, exuded admirable humility, was graced with a beautiful smile, and that “her style of playing the guitar tended to make one feel the tinges that are of an impact that is typically of raindrops on a person’s skin.”