The Gracious Lady That Is Olwethu Leshabane

Admired by many for her inspiring posts, our cover mom, Olwethu Leshabane talks to us about life as a mom of three

At the age of 27, Olwethu Leshabane is not about to be looked over. Just last month she moved from being a mother of two boys to being a mother of three. Professionally, our cover mom is a brand and digital strategist at CreativeSHOPPË, she’s also a blogger at artofsuperwoman.com, and it doesn’t end there, she is also the founder of The Red Wings Project, a female sanitation advocacy NPO. With her hands full of her precious little baby, Mamas & Papas got a chance to talk to her about the life of a busy mom, and before going into details about her recent pregnancy, we first talked about her childhood days, and the lessons she learned along the way.

Olwethu was born in Port Elizabeth. Her dad worked for an SOE that saw him transferred between Umtata, East London, Polokwane and Pretoria. After a few moves, Olwethu and her siblings were sent to boarding school in the Eastern Cape, with hopes of finding stability. “I think my siblings and I had an enviable upbringing. My dad was almost always ready to supply us with the bikes, the swimming lessons and pocket money for school,” she shares. With the constant moving around, it didn’t take long for her to learn to be independent in thought and in doing. When she was 15, she begged the owner of Mugg & Bean to hire her. This she did until he relented and so during the school holidays, she got employed.

One of Olwethu’s fondest memories from her childhood are the ‘funniest and best stories ever’ (iintsomi in isiXhosa) her late maternal grandmother used to tell. And while touching on her late grandmother, she adds, “I miss her prayers as well. That woman could pray and I see her prayers over my life come into fruition every day of life.”