Basetsana Kumalo
| Beauty pageant titleholder | |
| Born |
Basetsana Julia Makgalemele 29 March 1974 Soweto, South Africa |
|---|---|
| Residence | Johannesburg, South Africa |
| Hair color | Black |
| Eye color | Brown |
| Title(s) | Miss South Africa 1994 |
| Major competition(s) |
Miss South Africa 1994 (winner) Miss World 1994 (1st runner-up) (Miss World Africa) |
| Spouse | Romeo Kumalo (m. 2000) |
| Children | 3 |
| Official website | |
Basetsana Julia "Bassie" Kumalo (née Makgalemele; born 29 March 1974) is a South African television personality, beauty pageant titleholder, businesswoman, and philanthropist. Her career began in 1990 when she was crowned Miss Soweto and Miss Black South Africa at the age of 16. She was crowned Miss South Africa in 1994 and in the same year became the first runner-up in Miss World.
Kumalo was born in Soweto, South Africa. Her bus driver father, Philip Makgalemele, died in 2003 and her school teacher mother, Beatrice Makgalemele, died in 2006. She went to Thabisang Primary School. When the Soweto schools became unstable in 1986, Kumalo was sent to school in Lenasia.
She and her two sisters and brother spent their early years helping to keep the family afloat, making sandwiches to sell at soccer matches every weekend.
Before and during her reign as Miss South Africa, Kumalo dated boxer Dingaan Thobela.
She met her husband Romeo Kumalo, a Vodacom executive and former broadcaster, when she was crowned Miss Soweto. They started dating in 1997 and married in 2000. In 2005 Kumalo gave birth to their first child, a boy named Nkosinathi Gabriel. A second son, uShaka Kgositsile Emmanuel, was born in 2012.
During 1990 and 1991, Kumalo was crowned Miss Soweto at the age of 16. Kumalo left school planning to follow in her mother's footsteps as a teacher, but it was while before she was enrolled at the University of Venda to study education. Her mother entered her into Miss South Africa pageant that Kumalo went on to win.
While the reigning Miss South Africa, she started presenting the lifestyle television programme Top Billing. Kumalo formed a partnership with the show's producer, Patience Stevens. Tswelopele Productions was born with Kumalo owning a fifty-percent stake. The company is accredited by Impumelelo as one of South Africa's top 300 empowerment companies. The company's flagship brand is the Top Billing TV show, produced for SABC3. In 1999, Tswelopele merged with Union Alliance Media and listed on the JSE Securities Exchanged SA, making Kumalo one of the youngest black women directors to be part of the mainstream of the South African economy. In recent years, Top Billing's success has brought more projects to the Tswelopele brand, such as the Afrikaans magazine programme Pasella on SABC2 and the Swati youth show Seskohona on SABC1.
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