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Introducing Khotso

Posted on: January 27, 2020, in Latest News

What do you love most about Umngazi?

What I love the most about Umngazi is where it is located. The contrasts in the landscape, fauna and flora are quite dramatic, from the green rolling hills and valleys where one can see villages far off on the horizon, to the lush coastal forests and of course the pristine and mostly deserted beaches where you truly feel you are at alone yet one with the universe. It is just beautiful out here, there is always something new to see or experience around the corner.

What is your favourite dish at Umngazi?

I personally really enjoy the lamb shoulder roast that we serve on our carvery during our Saturday seafood buffets. It is always tender, succulent and moist. It also goes well with most of the delicious red wines we stock in our wine cellar.

What do you do when you are not working?

In my downtime, I like to explore our beautiful country and what its small towns and metropolises have to offer. I love travelling alone and am constantly on the move whether it be just for a couple of days or a week at a time. There is something so freeing about being able to get lost where no one knows you and just going with where the wind takes you. I have gotten to meet some wonderful people and seen things and made memories that will stay with me for a lifetime.

What is your favourite way to relax? I enjoy practicing mindfulness meditation and sitting with a good book and a glass of wine after a nice session. It always brings me back to the present moment, calms my anxieties and brings a stillness to what can sometimes be a stressful life.

What makes you laugh the most? My friends, they are interesting characters with some colourful personalities. The stories they tell me about what happened to them on a particular day or week are always intriguing and hilarious.

What is your favourite book to read?

“Of Tricksters Tyrants and Turncoats”, by Max du Preez. He has a well-researched, insightful, inspired and humorous grasp of South African history from all periods. He gives the reader a window into our hidden and forgotten histories. He also shows that we all are threads that form beautiful tapestry that is South African culture, art, history and society. All while making learning something new about how our diverse stories converge to form a complex and beautiful shared history, that makes us the South Africans we are today.

What is your favourite inspirational quote?

“Your body is not a temple, temples can be destroyed and desecrated. Your body is a forest; thick canopies of maple trees and wildflowers sprouting in the underwood. You will grow back, over and over, no matter how badly you are devastated.” Beau Taplin – Temples

What makes you proud to be South African? Our diversity, our resilience in times of difficulty and our “carry on with it” attitude. We also know how to have fun and aren’t as divided or fragmented as our little social media echo chambers would have us believe. We have a great capacity for kindness, warmth and hospitality.

If you could have a super power, what would it be?

My super power would be teleportation. It would make life so convenient when late for that meeting or to explore more of the world around me.

If you could have lunch with one person, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

I would love to have lunch with Max du Preez.  I think he is a great writer, story teller and journalist with an encyclopaedic and yet nuanced grasp of South African politics, current affairs and history. It would be amazing to pick his brains about our past, present and what his thoughts are our future as a country. As much as he may be a cynic I think he is, conversely both insightful and optimistic, which are qualities that resonate on a personal level for me.

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