Lights, Camera, Connie!
Forbes Woman Africa|September/November 2018

Connie Ferguson’s success on the small screen has won her millions of fans. She is now looking for billions in the business world.

Karen Mwendera
Lights, Camera, Connie!
 EIGHT SUMMERS AGO, IN A studio in the Northcliffneighborhood of Johannesburg, South African singer and actor Dineo Moeketsi was a bundle of nerves, auditioning for a role in the TV drama series, Rockville.

Judging the audition was actor, entrepreneur and the co-founder of Ferguson Films, Connie Ferguson.

The star, Moeketsi recalls, helped calm her nerves and erase the tension in the air.

“It’s rare to find a woman of her stature, it’s rare to find a woman of her grace, it’s rare to find a woman of her tenacity and prowess,” gushes Moeketsi.

She got the part and her only wish from then on was to spend more time with Ferguson learning her craft.

Moeketsi has since gone on to become one of Ferguson’s protégés and a popular actor herself. She now calls her mentor, ‘mom’.

Ferguson, a mother of two and proud grandmother, is one of South Africa’s most-loved TV personalities. Beyond the grease paint and the glaring lights of the TV studios, Ferguson is also a businesswoman.

On August 10, a day after Women’s Day – honoring the rocky resilience of the apartheid-era heroines of South Africa – we set up time to meet with Ferguson in a small studio in the leafy suburb of Greenside in Johannesburg.

The studio is on a road that is an airy strip of eateries, cafes, shisha parlors and salons.

Ferguson arrives driving a cobalt blue BMW and looking relaxed, in unpretentious floral pants and a casual jacket, profusely apologizing for her lateness.

The first thing you establish as Ferguson walks in is she has no starry airs, warmly greeting everyone in the cold studio.

Nomsa Madida, the makeup artist who has worked with Ferguson for over a decade and regards the star as her ‘idol’, is already present with her elaborate beauty kit open in front of her.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September/November 2018 من Forbes Woman Africa.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September/November 2018 من Forbes Woman Africa.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

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