Basetsana Kumalo
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.
Early life
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.
Personal life
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.
