One of Mzansi’s favourite Our Perfect Wedding (OPW) presenters, Kayise Ngqula, lost her husband on June 22, a year ago. She decided to write a love letter to him and upload the first episode on her After Dark with Kayise YouTube channel. The presenter first announced the news about her channel over a week ago with a snippet from the first episode.

In a very sombre yet strong tone she says, “And so Fari, Vodloza, this is for you. Thank you for being my heart. I love you.”

The episode speaks of their journey from the day they met to the day that he told her that he would like to lobola her. Throughout the video she also shares her grief and her healing journey. “To all widows and anyone going through grief, I hope you find healing watching this,” she captioned her first episode.

The couple first met in March 2015 when she had decided to get herself pizza and bumped into a tall, dark stranger who was looking at her. Kayise made the first move by getting back to him two weeks later with a text. “When I met him he was quite reserved, quite shy and very domesticated. As time went by I found him to be quite outgoing and loving,” she says with a smile on her face.

Kayise also speaks about Valentine’s Day of 2018, when Farai Sibanda asked for her hand in marriage by telling her that he would like to send his uncles to her home for lobola negotiations. She then speaks about the day she found out she was pregnant and the birth of her son, later on that year.

Throughout the video, the mother-of-one shows her resilience even through her tears. Halfway through the episode, she begins to tell the story of the tragic accident that took place in 2019.  The car accident left both her and her late husband in critical conditions. “I was told that when he would hear my name, he would react,” Kayise says as she begins to tear up speaking about her late husband’s recovery in hospital.

“On the evening of the last visit, I saw a very different look of sadness in my father and brother-in-law’s eyes. And I know now why because they had been there all night after they had been told he was deteriorating. This was kept from me and I presume they wanted to protect me from worrying as I also needed to focus on my healing,” she recalls as she speaks of the day she will never forget.

“When we came back from the funeral is when I really felt support and backing of my family, friends and most certainly South Africa. I probably wouldn’t have made it without my family,” she says.

Thuso Mbedu opened up about loving her dark brown skin.
Image: Instagram/Thuso Mbedu/emmy.photography
She may be considered to be one of the most beautiful SA stars but Emmy-nominated actress Thuso Mbedu didn’t always feel pretty in her dark complexion black skin and she’s shared the reasons for her insecurities.

Taking to Instagram, Thuso shared a beautiful throwback picture of her 26-year-old self and the background story behind the picture that many of her followers couldn’t have anticipated.

“I came across this picture that was taken three years ago and the first thought that struck me was, ‘This was the first time I felt pretty in my skin/complexion’. That was the thought and then I thought, ‘oh snap. That’s deep. And sad. That’s deeply sad.’”

Thuso said when it hit her that it was only in that photo shoot that she began to feel beautiful, when she was at the end of 25 years on Earth going towards 26, she was shattered.

The actress added that it wasn’t that she had make-up on that made her feel pretty, rather, it was the realisation that her dark skin never stood “in the way” of her beauty.

“It wasn’t even about the make-up because, as you can see, we went a little left with that. I just absolutely loved the brown of my skin that day. For the first time, I, too, could be perceived as pretty ‘despite’ how dark I was.”

Thuso took the opportunity to encourage other black, dark complexion girls to love the skin they are in.

“Twenty-six years is a long time to stop being awkward in your own skin just because you turned out a little darker than your sibling and so I hope that my younger followers will learn to love their own shade right now.”

Read Thuso’s full post below.

Boity put the troll in his place.
Image: @Boity/Instagram
Boity has left a hater dizzy, after he tried to body shame her.

The star was living her best life on Twitter, posting about a cellphone as part of an ambassador gig, when one follower criticised her fingers.

Yes! Her fingers.oity was not here for the shade, and told him that he doesn’t have to worry about her fingers because he would never see them in person.

“They will never touch you so don’t worry,” she wrote.Fans were in meltdown mode over the spicy clapback and soon Boity found herself on the Twitter trends list, as they weighed in.

They shared hilarious memes, joking about how Boity had swerved the hater and took shots at him.

Here are some of our fav reactions.

Babalwa Mneno has some thoughts on ANC leadership.
Image: Via Instagram
Model and socialite Babalwa Mneno added her voice to the flood of questions around Orania’s continued existence, expressing her disgust.

Orania is an Afrikaner-only SA town located along the Orange River in the Karoo region of the country’s Northern Cape province. The existence of the town has left many hot and bothered for years now, though nothing has been done about it.

Babalwa said the thought of Orania nauseated her. She said this in response to the post tweeted by politician Panyaza Lesufi about how Orania is a “betrayal of the call for a truly non racial SA”.

“Sies! I just almost puked! How can ANC government allow this madness,” she said.
Babalwa isn’t the first celebrity to share her thoughts on Orania, just a few weeks ago rapper Gigi Lamayne also asked how it was possible, 26 years into a democracy, for a place like Orania to exist.

“As we watch #JusticeForGeorgeFlyod #BlackLivesMatters #GeorgeFloyd #JusticeforCollinsKhosa I wonder if we realise that it is now more than ever that we must assess the strength in our unity. How does Orania still exist?” she asked.

Kelly Khumalo has a new single out titled Empini.
Image: Oupa Bopape/Gallo Images
Songstress Kelly Khumalo has mastered the skill of turning the lemons life gives her into lemonade and she’s still determined to emerge victorious from her recent battles.

Kelly’s latest track, Empini written and produced by Mondli Ngcobo of Inkanyezi fame also talks to the wars she and people are facing.

“When we were in studio creating the song, we wanted to talk about the woman who has conquered everything that was meant to destroy her and that’s how the song came to live,” she told TshisaLIVE.

“The song is not just about my personal war, it’s about the wars that we — as individuals and as people — are facing on a daily basis. If you look at where we are right now, there are so many battles that we are faced with. From Covid-19 to GBV, to racism and the list goes on and on an on.”

Kelly said each time she released a new song, she realised once again just how much love she gets from people. A refreshing reminder, she said, because on any odd day it can seem like the world is against her, especially on social media.

“It is crazy for me sometimes, the amount of love I get. having such a positive reaction from people always warms my heart and it truly validates me as an artist.

“If my life is anything to go by, I think I am blessed. What I’ve learnt is that people fall in love with authenticity. For me, no matter what life throws at me, people continue to support me. I think I have also mastered the rare skill of making lemon juice when lemons are thrown at me. I never see negatives, instead I always make things work for my good,” Kelly said.No matter how most people feel about Kelly Khumalo, there’s only a few people willing to deny the fact that her vocal prowess remains unmatched and the songstress keeps proving she deserves the “Vocal Highness” nickname Mzansi has given her.

Empini, Kelly’s latest single which translates to “at war”, sees Kelly talk about some of the battles she’s had to fight but the songstress explained that the song isn’t actually about her.

Kelly explained that she realised a long time ago that her songs belong to the people that listen to them and since then, she’s been singing with the hope to uplift, inspire or help people who might be in situations described in her music.

“I’ve learnt that it’s not always about me. As much as I’d wanna talk about me and my life and battles, as an artist and as a person respecting my calling, I get more out of a song when I talk about things that other people can relate to. It makes better sense to me to have a broad message in my songs that people can relate to.”