Creating a platform for local models
"We want the modelling industry in the city to become of an international standard so we can expose aspiring models to what models in bigger cities such as Johannesburg experience."
POLOKWANE – Finding their common interest to help girls in Limpopo explore their interest in the modelling profession, Lentsa Motau, Makhanani Chabalala and Fikile Mkhuzangwe established a modelling agency to do just that.
Lentsa and Makhanani recently met at their workplace but they have already known each other for a couple of years playing netball together and against each other for the South African netball team and in the Brutal Fruit Netball League.
Modelling, however, is what connects these two women and now they want to pave the way for aspiring models to further their modelling careers.
Lentsa, who hails from Nelspruit in Mpumalanga, started her modelling career as a Gr 9 learner. She studied BCom marketing at the University of Potchefstroom, North West campus after school.
“As a child, I did numerous fashion shows and modelling photo shoots and at Pukke I competed in the Miss Hostel and Miss Varsity Cup pageants. After my studies, I carried on with modelling,” Lentsa said.
Her first big pageant was Miss Mpumalanga 2014 where she was crowned as second princess. Last year she was one of the Miss Mamelodi Sundowns finalists and she added she plans to enter the pageant again this year.
Makhanani herself is no stranger when it comes to beauty pageants as she won the 2013 Miss Soweto crown.
“My modelling career started when my mom, Molly, entered me into a pageant when I was in Gr 1,” she said. Makhanani added she is also into corporate social investment which involves learners from the school where she works.
“Our vision is to establish a modelling agency at first, with models from Polokwane being our main focus point. We want the modelling industry in the city to become of an international standard so we can expose aspiring models to what models in bigger cities such as Johannesburg experience without them having to leave Polokwane to seek better opportunities,” Lentsa explained.
Fikile, who grew up in Bloemfontein, is a nurse by profession and is currently furthering her studies in the nursing profession.
“I play netball professionally and I am a model as well. I have done quite a couple of jobs in modelling and modelled, among others, for Mr Price Sports. I also did a shoot with Marie Claire fashion magazine and now recently I did a campaign for Woolworths,” she said. These three women’s sole vision in establishing the Kai Modelling Agency, is to teach and help build strong women. According to Lentsa, Kai is a Mandarin word which means incredible strength or unbreakable which is what they intend to accomplish.
