By Alec Hogg
As London’s winter starts taking hold, we’ve eased into a very British ritual on Saturday nights – the BBC’s wonderfully produced Strictly Come Dancing. Now into its 14th successive season, “Strictly” is a national institution which owns television’s prime time on Saturday and another chunk of Sundays.
Part of the appeal in our household is the South African connection. SA’s eight time Latin American Champion Otlile Mabuse is shining very brightly indeed. With the competition now reaching the business end, Oti and her amateur partner, actor Danny Mac, are the clear bookies’ favourites. They’ve dazzled the judges and audiences, pulling four scores of 10/10 from the judges in the last two weeks.
Pretoria-born Oti studied civil engineering before moving to Germany to become a full-time professional dancer. Her high profile performances are sure to inspire “homies” in the same way as Soweto-born Nana Meriwether, who became Miss USA in 2012. Meriwether is now the director of her family’s US-based Foundation which focuses on supporting impoverished rural SA communities.
South Africans are doing amazing things all over the world. They also tend to remember where they came from.
