Bassie My Journey of Hope, Basetsana Kumalo

Basetsana Kumalo shot to fame as Miss South Africa in 1994 and soon became the face of South Africas new democracy. As the first black presenter of the glamorous lifestyle TV show   Top Billing, she travelled the world and interviewed legends like Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jackson and Luther Vandross. After a successful career in front of the camera, Bassies drive and ambition took her into the world of business and entrepreneurship. The street savvy that her entrepreneurial mother bestowed on her as a child stood her in good stead as she built a media empire.

 

In   Bassie My Journey of Hope,  Bassie recounts her life journey, including her relationships with mentors like Nelson Mandela. She also shares the secrets of her success and all the lessons shes learnt along the way. She opens up about the pressures of her high-profile marriage to Romeo Kumalo and their heartbreaking struggle to have a family. She talks honestly about motherhood and maintaining a healthy work/life balance, and unpacks how she pays it forward through mentoring young people she has met along the way.

 

Bassie also describes the legal battles she has had to wage in order to protect her name and her brand over the years. She gives a chilling account of the stalker who has harassed her for decades, and the spurious sex-tape allegation that rocked her family and almost destroyed her career.

 

Bassies enthusiasm, humour and hope infuses every page of her memoir, making it an intimate, inspiring and entertaining account of a remarkable life. (Penguin Random House)