Lady of the House

Singer BUSISIWE ‘BUCIE’ NQWILISO, 30, candidly shares about motherhood, marriage and her decision to retire from music.

- Phila Tyekana

Just three months after giving birth to baby boy Aphiwe, Bucie, as she’s affectionately known, is on a mission to get her banging body back. We’ve seen her workout sessions via Instagram and, she says, the hard work is slowly paying off. “I have the best personal trainer who’s always encouraging me to take things easy. It’s taking time but eventually I’ll get there,” she says. Aphiwe is the singer’s second child – she has a 12-year-old son, Xolani, from a previous relationship. “Motherhood is amazing. It honestly feels like the first time. With my first pregnancy I was just 18 and after giving birth, my parents took Xolani to raise him in Stilfontein, North West, so I could continue with my studies and chase my dreams in Joburg. This time around, I’m raising my son from birth and while everything feels new, I’m enjoying it to the fullest.”

The artist is grateful for the opportunity to be a mom once more, something she thought she wouldn’t get to experience again. In January 2016, Bucie had an operation to treat endometriosis – a painful condition that causes the tissue that’s lining the inside of the uterus to grow on the ovaries, bowel, and the pelvis. It can affect fertility and often requires a number of surgeries as treatment.

After the operation, the star was told it’d be difficult, maybe even impossible, to conceive again. She’d been sickly and had excrutiating abdominal pains. These were so debilitating that she couldn’t attend rehearsals for Clash of the Choirs last year, where she was a choir master. “I was already a mom of one child, but hearing those bad news hurt. I’d always wanted my boy to have siblings, and now it wasn’t going to happen. That broke my heart. But God works in mysterious ways. I found out I was pregnant six months later!”