Stylish, charming and successful..meet Ms Zizo Beda

The beautiful Zizo Beda is one of South Africa’s brightest young talent making a mark in our local Entertainment industry. She recently launched her own label, “Life of the party” which is available at Legit stores. ALIYANA had an opportunity to interview this powerful force, letting us in on her thoughts for the future…

1. Do you think you have reached the pinnacle of your career and if not, where you see yourself in the next 5yrs? No,I have only just started. I will be doing something in the corporate space in 5 years, I’d like to be a CSI manager for a corporate company.

2. Media pressure seems to have evaded you, how to remain scandal free with the constant pressure and at times lies in the media about “celebs”? You learn to separate work from your personal life and what I do is work. It’s my 9-5 and when I’m not at work I don’t think about it I don’t hang out with ‘Colleagues’ I just hang out with my friends.

3. Has it always been your dream to be in the public eye and be recognised as a “celeb”? NO,I was always going to be the journalist who reported about ‘celebrities’. Life just has its own way of working itself out, I guess.

4. If there was 1 thing you could change about the industry, what would it be and why? I think everything has its challenges whether it is entertainment or not but overall I think if I could I would wish that there were no drugs. Dude, that is hectic!

5. Do you view yourself as a role model? And what for you makes one a role model? Kind of, not self-appointed but people sometimes people give you titles you can do without. For me I look up to somebody who tries to live their life right but understands and accepts that they are not perfect.

6. If you had the opportunity to interview one person besides Mandela, who would it be? I would interview any of the women who marched to the parliamentary buildings over 30 years ago. That atmosphere must have been awesome!

7. Polygamy has made the headlines lately because of Pres. Jacob Zuma, do you believe that our African customs are under attack or should we adapt to the times we live in as the country has adopted a Western Constitutional framework with a mix of African customs in it? I think that culture serves as a guideline to the kind of people that we once were. People have evolved and so have the views of culture and what it means. If you and your partner are in agreement about your stance then that’s ok. The danger with being as public a figure as a countries president is that you not only the president of a nation of people who share or necessarily understand your beliefs. There are certain sacrifices that one has to make in such a position and I don’t necessarily agree with some things the president has allowed to become public. It’s a tough one..

8. Would you recommend the media industry to a young girl or boy growing up looking at you and hoping to one day emulate you if not do better than you? If it is where one wants to be I would just say that try and learn what you can about the industry before you make a hectic commitment because it is not as easy as people sometimes believe it to be. I will never tell someone not to follow their dream.

9. Who in the industry is your source of inspiration? Different people for different things. For one, Connie Ferguson is such a classy, well-respected woman who is also an entrepreneur. She is cool.

10. If you could sum up your years in the media industry in three words, what would they be? Awesome, challenging, educational.

Enter our competition now and stand a chance to win R 500 worth of clothing from Zizo Beda’s collection. Tell us what about Zizo inspires you.