Happier & Healthier

After a few tough years, DJ and businesswoman Lerato Kganyago is on top of the world

- Qhama Dayile

To say life is going well for her is an understatement. She has a new man, a new makeup line, another new business venture and her health regime has her feeling like a new person.

Lerato Kganyago is feeling so at peace she doesn’t even mind that her Mercedes-Benz had to be towed away after she knocked it against an unmarked pavement at a shopping mall.

The DJ and former Miss Soweto is two weeks into a 21-day meat-free fast when we catch up with her.

“I’m currently on day 15 and going strong,” she tells us.

The fasting has been part of a spiritual and dietary journey, which has taught her patience, gratitude and discipline.

“I’m hoping to stay off all meat and fish permanently but I will see how it goes.”

She’s so relaxed that the car incident didn’t faze her, Lerato (37) says.

“If this happened last year or the year before, I would have lost my mind. But since I have been meat-free, I feel calmer, more patient and composed.”

BECOMING calmer helped Lerato to deal with the depression she’s been dealing with. She had to take antidepressants in 2018 after she collapsed on stage. “My life is not close to being perfect. I go through a lot but I am a private person and I choose to deal with my issues at home, so when I step outside, I am a stronger person,” she says.

Collapsing on stage was a wake-up call for her.

“I was tired and I had been working hard. There was just a lot going on in life. I had just heard about Akhumzi’s death while I was at a gig and I didn’t have a chance to grieve because I was always working. Everything just came tumbling down because I was fatigued.”

Akhumzi Jezile, as fans will recall, passed away in a car crash in April 2018 and it hit Lerato hard.