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Zandi takes pride in all her accomplishments
Her all-time goal is to have an academy where young people can be encouraged
Zandile Mlotshwa, known to her friends as Zandi or Pride, was born in Ladysmith in 1984.
Her family stayed in Ezakheni E-Section in her younger childhood years and when the political violence started, they moved to Acaciavale.
Zandi then continued her school career at Keate Street Primary School before being moved to ML Sultan Primary School, where her leadership qualities began to blossom and she was elected as a class prefect.
Zandi completed her high school career at Windsor Secondary School and being the first black head girl in 2001, she persevered through all the petitions that were drawn up against her being a prefect.
Zandi was not just the first black head girl, but also succeeded in getting a health policy started at the school, as there were so many teenage pregnancies at the time.
Other accomplishments included being the SAPS Youth Forum’s chairperson and kick-starting a hockey team of which she was the captain. After matriculating, she went off to study Somatology at Madge Wallace International College. She passed the three-year course and got her diploma.
In her first year, she started working in the beauty industry. While completing her last year in Somatology, she did two international degrees, namely ITec+Cidesco and RVB, which she passed and received more diplomas.
Zandi says she loves working hard. Being in Johannesburg with no family taught her to be financially responsible and do her best to make her family proud.
She started lecturing after her graduation, where she was asked to act as the head of the department. She later worked in a beauty spa as the manager.
She has seven years’ experience at an FET college, but rather decided to run her own company in the form of mobile clinics serving corporate companies, with the assistance of her students. In her spare time and with the little capital she had, she opened a beauty spa salon.
Thereafter, Zandi worked at various companies, even at the SABC as a beauty consultant and a make-up artist for programmes such as ‘Ses’khona’ and ‘Selimathunzi’.
In addition, she worked for ‘Drum’, ‘Huisgenoot’ and ‘You’ magazine, where she met Winnie Mandela, who interestingly told Zandi that she looks like her daughter. Zandi said she really enjoyed doing image profiling for her.
Zandi was featured on the cover of ‘Drum’ magazine. “It was very humbling,” says a smiling Zandi.
She managed an Afro-Fusion band, launching their EP at the SABC studios. Next was an assessor and moderator course, and she is now a qualified assessor and moderator.
“Life happens and I had a wake-up call when my baby girl was born,” says Zandi.
Moving back to Ladysmith, she opened a health, beauty and image profiling studio at Kingsgate Business Park. She is also a co-founder of an events partnership called ‘Hostesses With The Most’.
She’s done image profiles for at least two establishments in Ladysmith and is still striving to do better. In her spare time, she enjoys writing short stories and calls herself her own poet.
Her all-time goal is to have an academy where the young can be encouraged.
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