She eludes the charisma, elegance and confidence of one who has lived many years, and has thus seen it all. Nothing seems to faze her as she sits down for the interview with a smile on her face. A smile that's so natural and that seems to be a part of her daily life. I continued to marvel at this larger than life person sitting before me when I learned that she is just a young woman who has only lived 25 years on the planet earth. Despite the contradicting evidence.
What motivated you to leave law and go into the entertainment industry?
It wasn’t so much motivation. It just happened accidentally. When I left high school, I did charity work in Standerton with a couple of friends and an ex-boyfriend. And afterwards we decided we wanted to give back to the community so we took a gap year and we put together all the money we could and built a community centre in a school. And we started teaching kids Microsoft, word, excel, typing. We basically became teachers and afterwards I decided to study law because my Mom is a lawyer and my Dad is a lawyer too.
While I was studying law and even when I was done I decided to continue doing charity work. My Mom started a charity organization called the ark foundation so basically we are passionate about seeing kids educated because my Mom went back to school at 33. She had three kids already and she was married but she went back to grade 11 with 17 year olds at home. So she was very passionate about education and I wanted to help her in her quest. And at the same time I was busy finding myself so I worked at the Ark Foundation, did a couple of odd jobs in an Accounting firm and because of the odd jobs I was doing I ended up helping out a friend of mine who was running a Christian magazine. He was running it very badly. And because I am a creative person, when I saw it I asked if I could help him. So to cut the story short we revamped the magazine and we had a massive launch, a very fancy launch and some of his media friends in television came to cover it. And some of the people who came to cover the event were from Good Morning Africa funny enough.
So they covered the event and a week later this guy from the Christian magazine started looking for me. And the problem with this guy is that every time he looks for me, he always has a huge favour to ask of me. It would mean I would have to dedicate hours of work to something, so I ran away for a couple of days. He found me on the parking lot. And he said to me, ‘those guys who came to shoot at the launch want to shoot a pilot for a breakfast show for another channel and I suggested that maybe you could be the female presenter. So I went on to do the pilot. The show never aired anyway. We just shot the pilot and everyone loved it. And the owner of Planet TV saw it and he said to me, ‘you have a natural talent.
When I went to shoot the pilot, Planet Image had a very humble office. A very small office, without a lot of stuff. So we shot and then I had to come back on the third day to do voice-overs for all the stuff I had done, and Wale and I got talking. So that’s how I met Wale.
Wale is my current partner and the CEO of Planet Image and PR TV. He is extra-ordinary man. After shooting a pilot that never showed, there I was doing voice-overs. And he and I started talking in depth and because my eye likes making things better. I like to make things big. I looked at his office and I said that I think there are a few things that we could change around there. Things like his administrative processes. And how he welcomes guests and how he shot and all of that. Wale is one person who is always eager to learn. He is a man, yes. And he has his proud moments but I have never met anyone who is soo open to new experiences. And he was like whatever project you would like to do, talk to me. So let’s start. We started revamping the office. And we got cubicles and the stuff started training and now we are on a second floor building and we occupy most of the second floor. It’s all our studios and everything is working beautifully and we started PR TV. And now the only time when the law comes in is when the fact that I love law comes in. I grew up with lawyers and I still dress like lawyers. I don’t want to say I do the litigations but I want to say I do all the lawyery stuff. I do all the agreements in the company. But I also present because I am a talker. It just comes naturally. I met someone accidentally and he and I got to talking and we happened to have the same mind. And the rest is absolute history.
Talking about the media empire her company is aiming to build..
I have started to work with the opposite of everything I thought I knew. Everything I thought I knew has turned out to work in the other direction. I mean me on television? It was never meant to be like that. I never planned it. In my head, you get married, you have children, you do your law and you work at a law firm and life is good.
So when we thought of building our media empire, we never thought we'd have a radio station. And we didn't even think we’d own a TV station. So there are absolutely no limits.
People say that the sky is the limit. For me it is my launch pad. There is a so much beyond the planet earth so how can I can say that little blue thing is my limit? It is the beginning for me.
So in terms of our empire, what we are doing now is that we are building partnerships in countries of Africa that have the strongest television and broadcast countries so that would be Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and obviously Botswana and Uganda and when we have solidified relationships there, it 'll mean there is a PR TV and Planet Image in every single country. We'll be able to feed off all their content, put it together down in South Africa and send it out to the rest of the world, so in our empire we are very big in developing people who are as young as us.
We have extra soft spots the younger you are and the dedicated you are. It does look like we'll go into print but like I said as soon as I opened my mind and stopped thinking, "I know it all," the world gave me more opportunities. So yes we would also like to go into mobile television. Those are easy to produce and we could stream our stuff into them.
So PRTV is going to start broadcasting on DSTV?
Yes. We can’t mention anything yet or mention any of the dates because we have been sworn to secrecy. We are working on acquiring licences. In South Africa we are going to start broadcasting in the Soweto community which is like 5 million people. For free. So anywhere where someone can catch Soweto TV, they will be able to catch us. We are also in talks with Botswana’s BTV where we could broadcast for a couple of hours. Because now everyone has DSTV, it will be great for the rest of the country to know what we are.
Do you have any plans to do any media related courses/degrees to back up….
When you are on top that’s when you need to work the hardest. You don’t get on top and relax. You get to the top and work your butt off so you can stay on top. Even if you want to leave the top, everyone will know you left yourself. And you did not leave because someone got better than you or you got overwhelmed. So yes, I’d like to do extra training but my current problem is that I am not really sure what I should go into. In the past year, I met people from SENTEC who were talking about bands, and waves and TV transmissions, and that’s when I told myself, this is what I am doing right now. I need to find retro licences and we need to find space somewhere by satellite, and then I thought, maybe in terms of broadcast this is where I need further training. And then it turned out that the radio and TV application is completely IT related, and there are graphics involved and 3D designs and then I thought maybe this is the aspect of broadcast I need to broaden my mind in. Television and how microfibers work and how we can transmit. So in the space of a year I had four different options on what I can enlarge on, but I am really not sure which they are so I have given myself up until February but it will definitely be around broadcast. When it comes to presentation skills, I would definitely would like to get a little more training because I am not perfect. I am far from it. I feel I am almost at the top of my game and therefore I need to work harder.
Touching on her personal life, here is what Mabel had to say..
I fell in love and I had a beautiful little girl out of it.
So does that mean you are married?
No. I am completely separated. I learned a lot and I got a beautiful little girl. Her name is Nthati. She is a big talker too. Her full name is Onthatile. She has the biggest smile and the hugest dimples in the world.
How old is she?
She’s 4 this year.
Please tell us who Mabel Mabaso is.
Shoo. How much time do we have? *chuckles* I am a very very blessed and happy child. I am so blessed and happy, you don't understand. I am very happy. I am content with life. I have never felt more loved than I do right now in my life. I have never felt more accepted. I am saved and I love Jesus Christ with my heart. He is my biggest and my closest buddy. There is nothing I can hide from him so there is no point in trying. My family is saved. I come from a Christian family. I have three brothers and I am the only girl. I am the 2nd born. And before me is my oldest brother, he's 30 this year. Then i have a 22 year old brother and 15 year old brother. We used to fight bitterly as children but we are so in love right now. It's just a big contrast from when we were growing up. My parents have worked hard to ensure that should anything ever happen to any of them, I would never feel like I am left by myself.
I have a lot of support from my family.
I love food. I watch the food network. I watch BBC lifestyle. I watch the travel channel. I watch the style channel only for the food shows. I love eating food. I love watching food. I love making food. I love reading about food. I love seeing food in magazines. In fact, it's actually funny, when I first get invited to an event; the first thing I ask is if there food. When they say that it's there, I just say, "I'm there.” Food is very dear and personal to me." It's a very spiritual experience.
Nourishing this temple I have been given. I overdo it sometimes. My daughter loves food.
I laugh a lot. I make myself laugh all the time.
I believe I am really good company to myself. I date myself. I take me out. I take me to the movies. I take me to dinner. And I don't argue with myself. I laugh at all my jokes. I pull my own chair. I pay for my dinner. I take me home. Am I not a good date? I am a fantastic date neh?
It took a lot for me to be content with myself. I used to be very conscious of how I look. The colour of my skin. My mom is very light. My brothers are very light. My brothers are very light and I came out looking like my father. He is dark with a big nose. And the shape of my head; I have an Asian head. The back of my head is flat. And the front of head is flat.
Black people generally have beautifully shaped heads. Their heads are shaped like their bodies. They are just carved beautifully so I could never hold a ponytail and i could never do cornrows and now for the first time I am actually happy with the funny shape of my head and my nose. And I like the shape of my nose and I love the colour of my skin. I love the gap in my teeth. The gap that I have always been teased about and now, I know that everybody wants my gap.
That's Mabel. I am also a very intimate person. I don't like socializing much. I like intimate groups. So in our group, if there is food and there is something to drink and we are confortable on the couch and on the floor and there is television that is my perfect night for me.
I don't like the sun at all. I drink a lot of water. I sleep with it. I always have it at work. If water disappeared, I don't know what would happen to me.
My happiest days are the days when I have no make-up on. My day would be so horrible and I would be irritated and annoyed but when I walk through the door and I realize that I don't have make-up on and I have nothing to wash off. My day is better already.
I have to wear make-up for a living and fortunately I don't shoot every day, so I don't have to wear make-up everyday but I have become a popular face and my boss insists I wear make-up. So those days when I don't get to wear make-up. Ohh!
I do love red lipstick though. And I am a bad dancer.
How were you doing at Fusion yesterday? I know people were probably dancing.
People were dancing and to save myself and respect myself, I didn't dance so much and I got tired very fast. I am so out of shape these days. *chuckle* I get tired easily so there was no way I was keeping up with those kids. I was watching the guys dance but I got up for 3 or 4 songs. I went stupidly crazy.
But all in all, I sat a lot of the time because I wanted to see how a lot of Batswana partied. I watched their bodies and I watched the type of music they reacted to. There was a lot of western music, but as soon as the local (African) music came on the floor was packed. It was music from SA, music from here. As soon as that came on, a lot of people would be on the floor dancing.
I was observing things like that. And I was also watching Indian guys loving the shape of the woman. I was watching the Indian guys dancing very badly. I also realized that a lot of people are not very tall. They have amazing bodies though. And though you live in such harsh conditions, everybody is really light skinned. Everyone is well-mannered and everyone calls each other rre or mme. It was really adorable.
Talking about the therapy that keep psychiatrists and psychologists at bay..
I go to the movies when I am upset. When I am most upsettest. Like when I am on the verge of crying upset, I need to go watch a movie where things explode. Something must blow up. A lot. So I need to watch something where things explode. And when I am really happy and I don't know what I must do with myself things must explode.
The movies are my therapy. I speak to myself and I speak to God first. I'll be like Holy Spirit calm a sister down. Or Holy Spirit, I am so happy. And I thank you.
I take myself to the movies during these times. That's why I am saying that I am such a good date. This date things comes from taking me to the movies. When I do, nothing else exist for two hours. Just me and the salty popcorn, a giant coke and everything else that's happening on the screen, and I always leave everything in the cinema. Everything. If i was really upset or I was very happy. I leave everything in the cinema. All the joy. Just everything. I just figure that it could be worse. Things could be blowing up in my life and they are not. And I always feel better.
I don't how it works. I think it first happened when I had my daughter. A lot of things were happening in my life. I was with my mom, and my husband and I were going through a rough patch and I decided that I wanted a happy baby so my mom came and she stayed with me. My daughter was very clingy. I would shower and I would hear my mother calling out for m because the baby would be crying uncontrollably. , "mabel the baby is crying."
So when Nthati was 6 months old, my mother took her and told me to just go. “You have 2 hours. I don't know what you gonna do with them but just get out of the house.” I was sad. I was happy that my baby was here but I was sad because I wasn’t raising her with the person I was meant to have been raising her with. So it was a really depressing time for me so I took myself to the movies and when I got there was a mental click that stayed with me. A calm. So the mental click that first happened when I went to the movies after my daughter was born stayed with me.
That day I went into the cinema and watched the movie and everything was perfect from that day on.
So now everyone in my family knows it's the movies. Even my partner knows that when I am most upset, he says go home and I’ll pick you up and we'll go to the movies. He hates the movies though. And when he offers to take me to the movies he knows it's really bad. So I go to the movies and I become happy!
It’s my therapy. It’s like Jesus lives there.
So it’s psychological?
I don't know how it works or why it works. I have a process. I must get there 10 minutes early. Get my movie and I must get popcorn even if I am full, I must have a bucket of popcorn. It must be salted with loads of vinegar and salt and sour cream.
There must be a bottle of water, coke with no ice. And I would sit in the crowd and watch at least 2 commercials. That' s the calming process. I always finish my popcorn. And my mouth has to peel because of the loads of the salt. And the peeling is part of the heeling process. It reminds me that I went to the movies. The mouth peeling.
I get really sad when I go to the movies and nothing blows up. I can't stand romantic comedies. I can't stand dramas when I am in that kind of mood. When I go to the movies and nothing blows up, I have to watch a kiddie’s drama and at least there, something will happen.
What are some of the challenges you faced while pursuing your dream?
Not being quiet sure where I am going. I never planned for this. Where I have this list where I would be like, okay in 2 months this would have been done. Check. I had no idea where I was going but I knew that God was taking me somewhere I had not planned. He was showing me that He had a bigger plan. Which was very scay because even when I was reluctant to listen, he just took me there without my consent.
Another challenge was that I stopped being an employee and Wale and I became employers, which meant that we didn't depend on a salary like everyone else. And it's hard when I am paying a ridiculous amount of school fees for my daughter. Rent. And I am looking after my little brother. My car and my clothes. And the image I have to keep up. So we became business owners and we lost the luxury of having salaries.
And it's not like we had connections or rich fathers or the government supporting us. Everything we had to learn ourselves. A lot of the things were trial and error.
The thing about a radio/TV channel is that it has never been done before. We are the 2nd people do to it. Getting here was really really hard but I would lie if I said I didn't enjoy myself.
So is it true what they say? It's a man's world?
To this day men still treat women like they just appeared in the world. Like they have never seen us before and we are still so amazing and majestic. When I first walked into the business world and i saw all these businessmen men, I idolized them and I thought these people were majestic and untouchable. As time went on, I realized that they were just people. They are just men like any other men.Tthey have the same elements that other man have. I will admit, I have always found great favour even with the hardest of men. I walk in with my tall, dark self and my very happy smile and my confidence that says I know what I am talking about, and they respect me. I get a lot of respect. But it is a man's world but it's changing rapidly before my eyes.
Given a chance would you have taken a different journey?
Neeever. Not even no. Never.
And the challenges you face on a daily basis?
I am still learning who I am. Learning how to behave and how to carry myself. And it's weird. I am young and far from 30 and I have the responsibility of my daughter, which is fantastic and I don't mind. But I also have the responsibility of my 15 year old brother because my mother is not doing law anymore, she went into Ministry full time. She travels a lot and I said to her, I don't want you disrupting Mbusu's life in moving schools, changing friends. I want him to be static and have a static life. And my daughter and I are his family, I look after him. And it is weird trying not to be his sister and be his mother because he is a man, men are raised differently. Men need men in their lives. So my dad is not around which means I am his sister, his mom and his dad.
I cannot be gone for 2 months. I feel guilty a lot but I have accepted that I am at an age where I need to amass wealth. It's not like I am leaving my daughter to go on ridiculous escapades or partying. I leave for 2 weeks and 4 weeks to work. And I leave her completely catered for. Nanny, grandmother, my brothers, a driver. She is always completely catered for.
Another challenge is that I can be incredibly stupid and crazy. Because I am now in a managerial position people see me in a different light. I have to behave in a certain way I miss Mabel. People don't call me Mabel anymore. They call me Ms Mabel or Ms Mabaso. I call people at work and they accidentally call me, sir. It means I have to restrict myself like I can’t run through fountains or hire a jumping castle and jump on it all by myself.
Putting the Christian aspect of what I do is also challenging. It's hard thinking how I am going to tackle an alcoholic advertising. At the end of the day, I always try not to do anything that will cause a brother to fall.
How do you stay so humble? Obviously you meet a lot of people who give you a lot of praise
I went through a time in my life when I personally felt I had a big ego but I thank God that it happened when I wasn't exactly popular. I always tell my Mom that, I know that God loves everybody but I really think I am His favourite, because when I didn’t want Him around, He never left, He would tell me things about myself. He would tell me, "Okay, I think you are getting a little too ahead of yourself, and the fact that I know that I am not where I am because I am amazing and well spoken, and so pretty, and I am always reminded that the guy who gave me all of this can just take it away just as He had given it to me. So when someone congratulates me or says something to me, I say thank you and I bow a little bit. You know in our culture when someone says thank you to us we bow a little bit? People take that for granted especially when you are a young business woman. When I am speaking to a man and we are both the same height, I cannot shake his hand and give him a little bow. It's gonna look weird and he'll probably think I am stupid so I just say, thank you, thank you. You far too kind. Kill it with a joke and everybody leaves. I don't think He'd ever allow me to be inflated or have a big ego because He has a big plan for me and He is not going to risk it having me not achieve it.
How did you come up with the idea for a radio/TV channel?
We were a radio before and we wanted to put a webcam in it. But other than that, my partner wanted it, he is so ambitious guy, that guy. A dog with a bone is nothing. Like when he holds on to something. You will not sleep till it's done. I am a big procrastinator. I want to do it tomorrow. He wants to do it now. I come up with the ideas and he wants it done now. He pushes me hard. But at the end of the day, we come up with these great ideas together.
I have an idea that when PR TV becomes bigger, we'll broadcast it to the moon. I will spray paint the moon and the whole world will see. And I am going to get a big big billboard and put it on the moon, and whether you like it or not, you will see it. That's how big I think and that's how we came up with PR/TV. We just thought what is the biggest and craziest thing we could do? We could put a camera in this radio station and we could instigate 6 shows in one. Have people come.
Initially, we had CCTV cameras in the office and when the DJ's were playing, because no one would see them except us they would get up and dance so hard. We thought this would make for fun televisions. We would watch DJs get down to their own little shows and radio presenters would get down in their pyjamas on their 3 hour shows. We thought it'd really be fun to watch. And besides there isn't really enough reality TV in Africa. And that is reality TV. So that's what inspired it.
What are some of the things you tell yourself in order to keep on going?
My Dad tells me that He knows the plans He has for me. The plans to prosper me and not to harm me. I should seek His face and He will show me great things. Things that I did not know. And things that are hidden from the world. He has a big plan for this African girl.
PROFILE:
Full Names: Mabel Philisile Mabaso
Date of Birth: 10/11/1987
Place of Birth: Pretoria. Mamelodi. Where all the cool people are born.
FAVOURITE MOVIE: Tuesdays at Murrays. The Expendables Part 2
FAVOURITE BOOK: 5 Love Languages by Dr. Gary Chapman.
FAVOURITE MUSIC: The thing is that I like everything that makes me feel emotional or takes me somewhere. I love Colypso. Old school RnB. Contemporary gospel.
Favourite Holiday Destination: I hate the sun but I love the South of France
5 things we didn’t know about Mabel Mabaso:
1. I cannot stand it when people pick their noses. I cannot explain what it does to me.
2. I love people. I love children. I love babies.
3. My 25th birthday is my favourite birthday to date.I had it at an orphanage, Sparrow Orphanage. I was with the De Zone Productions Team.
4. I am giving. My greatest honour and my greatest joy is to be able to give. Nothing gives me more pleasure.
5. I am sarcastic. It's terrible. It's a problem. And I need help. *chuckles.*
Favourite Quote: My favourite quote is by my Dad, “For I know the plans I have for you. The plans to prosper you and not to harm you.”
Interesting interview... I love Mabel absolutely and she inspires me
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