AFRICA
| Make-up tips for an Eldorado Park student |
By Africa correspondent Jane Standley in Johannesburg
Perhaps it is the elegant swing of the gates which gives it away.
| The Tambo family home doubles as a finishing school |
Grace and good manners are prized at The Tambo Grooming School, South Africa's premier finishing school.
Tselane Tambo is the founder and teaches the etiquette she learned in the United Kingdom while a political exile.
Her famous father, Oliver Tambo, was president of the African National Congress.
Tselane attended exclusive European schools before the family came home to become new South African royalty.
Getting over isolation
There is especially in the corporate world a sort of common code of behaviour and perhaps I think we have been isolated from that |
| Tselane Tambo, The Tambo Grooming School |
Ms Tambo says that many South Africans spent years isolated by apartheid.
For this reason, they do not always have Nelson Mandela's winning charm.
"We have a lot of multi-nationals coming to set up business here and that means there is a lot of interaction between South Africans and people from other countries.
"There is, especially in the corporate world, a sort of common code of behaviour - which is global - and perhaps I think we have been isolated from that."
New confidence
| Tselane tutors Giselle, a nurse |
Giselle van der Merwe is just one of the school's graduates who is pleased with the grooming, presentation and assertion skills she learned.
Tselane tambo biography of mahatma gandhi The couple had three children, Thembi, Dali and Tselane, but his ANC activities and later life in exile meant that Tambo saw little of his family, the role of the main supporter falling on Adelaide. When the apartheid regime banned Walter Sisulu, Tambo was elected Secretary-General of the ANC in In Tambo was elected ANC Deputy President.
Now, she insists that every nurse at her agency comes too.
"I think the confidence is also so important because if you take care of a patient and you don't have the confidence to make use of your skills that's not going to help you a lot to believe in yourself."
The Tambo family mansion is the ideal location for grooming South Africa's rich and its up-and-coming movers and shakers.
Manners in demand
However, there are many many more people just a few miles down the road who are poor and who are chasing ever more scarce jobs. What, one asks, can a finishing school do for them?
| Tselane Tambo lectures on the importance of an apology |
In Eldorado Park, a coloured township next door to Soweto more people are out of work than in.
Tselane tambo biography of mahatma Tselane says she aims to exhibit between 20 and 30 decorative masterpieces at the launch, which will be held at The Birchwood Hotel & OR Tambo Conference, near the OR Tambo International Airport.
Tselane Tambo arrives late at the Eldorado Park Secondary School. She admits to committing a cardinal sin - but she is not giving up yet.
The Johannesburg traffic may have made her an hour and a half late - but first things first.
She offers effusive apologies to her latest pupils - disadvantaged Eldorado Park school children.
Inner beauty
They and she know all too well that in a time of high unemployment, inner confidence is as important as outer appearance.
A woman of substance and beauty – The Mail & Guardian
Tselane Tambo is an eccentric, aloof character preferring to reserve her opinion on the current state of South Africa, while her brother, Dali Tambo, assumes the mantle of a patriot who.
"We're all beautiful," Tselane tells the students.
"We just need to take that beauty and make it a little bit more."
you must expand your brain beyond Eldorado Park - and really think in the world |
| Rubilene Daniels, Eldorado park student |
Grooming for finishing school staff is still a must.
At the school, they are motivational speakers too - with very receptive pupils.
"The problem here in Eldorado Park is that the kids are growing up with a background - a very low self-esteem background, " says Rubilene Daniels.
"But I told them that you must expand your brain beyond Eldorado Park - and really think in the world."
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