Going with the flow

When Enhle Mbali Mothswa explodes like a style bomb on arrival in the PepperTree restaurant in Pretoria, I realise I have just spoken my inner dialogue out loud.

I have only good things to say about PepperTree but I have also driven 45 minutes to get to this charming little oasis in some distant corner of the far north and I wonder if it’s because she lives close by.

Nope, it’s not the case. She just really likes it. For its privacy. I get it — not from personal experience but I imagine it might be the thing you come to really value if you have lived much of your adult life in the public eye as Enhle has on all the screens — big, middling and hand held.

She has seen the good, the bad and the ugly side of the relentless scrutiny of her private life, her marriage, her divorce, her highs, her lows. You probably want to go to a place that feels safe when you have had your personal life dissected on the regular.

So here we are privately tucking into the delicious house pizza before we head back into the glare of our lives. Some more than others.

She is dressed in a bespoke suit — her boyfriend’s. But she designed and made it. Her label Essie Apparel has dressed everyone from Beyoncé to Nomvula Mokonyane for this year’s Sona and it is one of the by-products of a creatively charged and entrepreneurial upbringing in a women-led house in White City, Soweto.

When you swim against the river, mostly you tire and drown. But if you follow the river it'll take you to where you want to be. At the end of it, you'll be at a place of safety
— Enhle Mbali Mothswa

Her father died when she was very young and I ask her how she thinks it affected her mindset. “I grew up in a little house about two streets from a place they called amadicey, where they played dice, with my great grandmother, my grandmother and my mother. A family of matriarchs, but yes I think I had a heightened sense of responsibility — sometimes too heightened.

“I think it's really important for us to realise that we need to centre ourselves, because we push, push, push. We just don't give ourselves time to be. That's what I found with myself. I gave so much of myself until, what Oprah said, I had an aha moment. And my aha moment was a breakdown. I had to walk myself into an institution and say I'm not OK.”

That was six years ago. The woman in the suit is channelling a very different kind of energy. “I grew up around women who were entrepreneurs, businesswomen. I took that and I learnt the base skills of leadership at home, and it's a very soft yet firm style of leadership. So that manifested into who I am now. I enjoy starting businesses. I enjoy running businesses, and one of them is Essie Apparel, which is my passion. I just love growing a business. I've also gone back to school. I'm studying for my BBA so I can take the business further. So that's how it manifested.”

I can see why she is one of this year’s South African Style Awards winners. “I was about four or five years old when my aunts took me to watch Sarafina the movie, and from that day I became a stoep performer, making all my neighbours watch me. I just wanted to do what Leleti Khumalo did, I just wanted people to feel.”

I love the story of her big break, it speaks to her character. “My mother's a makeup artist. I was 16 or 17 and she had a gig that she was starting and she was at a photoshoot. I found a script on one of the couches and I read it and saw a character. I saw she was young. Light bulb moment. I was like, OK, I could probably try to audition. Miraculously there were auditions on that day, so I've learnt the script. So when we got to the production company, she left me in a little room, and she said, I'm coming back. And I saw everyone wearing little tags. And I filled out the form for mine and I hid it from her. Then they called my name. I put it back on. I went into the audition room. And Bob’s your uncle!

“As soon as I finished auditioning, I remember Mama Isabella (she owned the production company) held my hand and I thought, oh, no, what did I do wrong? She pulled me out of the room and she walked with me. She said ‘Whose child is this?' And my mom, you could see her face was just like, ‘oh, what did she do?’”

I wonder what she has learnt? “The more you fight the universe, the more the universe will fight you back. So sometimes, as hard as it is to do with great ease, you need to just flow with the river. When you swim against the river, mostly you tire and drown. But if you follow the river it'll take you to where you want to be. At the end of it, you'll be at a place of safety.”