10 South African Personalities Who Made Us Proud In 2017
10 South African Personalities Who Made Us Proud In 2017. These talented and hardworking individuals made us proud this year by representing us well on an international stage. Some beat the odds and broke barriers to inspire their peers and the nation at large. Check them out below for inspiration.
1. Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters
Our very own beauty queen brought home a top international pageant title. Miss South Africa 2017 Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters made us super proud as she got crowned Miss Universe 2017. We haven’t had a Miss Universe from South Africa in 39 years, so we shall forever cherish this win.
2. Thuso Mbedu
Talented actress Thuso Mbedu was nominated for her role depicting a young heroine – Struggle stalwart Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in Is’thunzi. She was the only African nominee at the International Emmy Awards in the US in November in the best actress category.
3. Trevor Noah
In August, Noah bagged Best Short Form Variety Series for his YouTube special, The Daily Show: Between the Scenes, at the award’s Creative Arts ceremony in Los Angeles. He also won this year’s Nielsens Booksellers’ Choice Award for his autobiography, Born a Crime and Other Stories, and the 2017 Thurber Prize for American Humour for his memoirs.
4. Wayde van Niekerk
2017 was one of sprinter Van Niekerk’s best years. He is the current world record holder, world champion and Olympic champion in the 400 metres, and also holds the world best time in the 300 metres. Wayde was once again up for the prestigious male IAAF World Athlete of the Year, though he did not get the award.
5. Terry Pheto
The talented actress is no stranger to awards. She once again made us proud at the International Achievement Recognition Awards (IARA) held in London. Terry, who was the top nominee of the night took home the Best Actress 2017 award for her role as Naledi Khama in A United Kingdom. She also won Best Actress – TV or Drama 2017 for her role as Winnie Mandela in the BET series Madiba.
6. Caster Semenya
Our golden girl bagged the 800-metre gold medal at the IAAF World Championships in London in August in a world record time of 1 minute 55.16 seconds. Semenya, also earlier raked in a bronze in the 1 500m, her first triumph in the longer event.
7. Cassper Nyovest
He made history by filling up FNB Stadium with nothing but local talent. Cassper officially become the first South African hip-hop artist to ever hold a concert at the FNB Stadium and receive such an electrifying turn out. From selling out all the golden circle tickets to bringing in a crowd large enough to literally fill out the stadium, which has a capacity of 75 000, Cassper did indeed make history.
8. Black Coffee
The renowned DJ made South Africa proud when he got his own international radio show. Black Coffee followed in the footsteps of music icons like Drake, Dr Dre and Pharrell Williams by scoring his own radio show on Apple’s Beats 1 radio station.
9. Nandi Madida
Multi-talented singer, songwriter and presenter Nandi Madida made history as the first African to host Afropunk. After a few months, it was also announced that she will host AFROPUNK Joburg on the 30th and 31st December. To add on to that, Nandi is also the new face of Lux.
10. John Kani
Award winning veteran actor John Kani is part of an all-star cast of Walt Disney’s new live-action film version of the The Lion King. John is cast in the role of Rafiki. The film is expected to hit US theatres on 19 July, 2019.
