Top 3 Fearless Tastemakers for 2018!

This is the second year the competition has been held, and once again we are amazed at the entries received for the Delush Fearless Tastemaker competition. Wow – what a selection of incredible ladies the judges had to go through before deciding on the final Top 10.

And then last weekend the Top 10 all joined the Delush team for a lunch and a party in Johannesburg where the judges had the difficult task of selecting the top three finalists.

This was a tough task, made harder once we had spent time with the 10 gorgeous, go-getting and stylish ladies who turned out at the event dressed to the nines and all proving to be true Delush Fearless Tastemaker material.

But it had to go down to three, and so it is Azande Mchunu, Silindile Ngema and Nomfundo Mlaba who are left in this year’s competition, with the winner of this year’s Delush Fearless Tastemaker being chosen on Friday.

Azande Mchunu

Talk to Azande Mchunu and you wonder how she finds enough hours in the day to get through what she does, but she whips through all of it in a breeze.

This 29 year-old from Durban was – wait for it – working in the building construction industry before heading to Johannesburg to follow her passion.

“I had to make a choice – be stuck in a job that was work for work’s sake, or get out and do what I really want to do,” she says.

And that is music, and specifically the DJ scene. “I have been in love with music for as long as I can remember. I love everything about music – house, soul pop – and knew that if I was going to follow my dream it would entail some involvement in the music field.”

Azande chose the DJ art, and now is a regular at clubs and events where she spins the vibes for hundreds to thousands of dancing people.

“I like to make people happy, and what is better than playing tunes that get people dancing, laughing and having a great time!”

In-between DJ gigs, her week-day job is catering. “Food also makes people happy!” From Monday to Friday Azande prepares a smart lunch for 40 demanding executives, using the skills she learnt while studying at the Capsicum Cooking School in Johannesburg.

And, oh, if that is not enough she also hosts pop-up gyms where music plays a part of the clients’ work-out sessions.

“I am driven and aggressive in going out and achieving my goals. And I have a real entrepreneurial spirit, as this is the spirit a woman needs to stand up out of the crowd and to get what she wants.”

And she wants that title of Delush Fearless Tastemaker. “It is such a great wine – I am exposed to it through my cooking and in the clubs, and have grown to love its taste. Me and the Delush wine? A match made in heaven. So I’d love to win the competition and use if as a platform to take my career and my brand to new heights.”

Silindile Ngema

No, Silindile Ngema does not mind if one calls her Slienky, as she is known on her social media channels. If is, after all, the name that has turned her into a brand due to her striking looks, style and energy.

A qualified architect, Silindile lives and works in Johannesburg where she has taken her architecture skill into the world of interior design.

“I love colour, design, patterns and vivid expressions in an interior space,” she says. “As an architect I was being exposed to so much bland and clinical interior corporate space which was making my hands itch to bring out some life and colour. So this is what I do now, using my eye for style and colour to energize interior design.”

Besides implementing her creativity in bringing interior spaces to life, Silindile also finds herself in front of the camera as a professional model. And she is also a brand ambassador for Vaseline.

“I am comfortable in front of the camera and want to inspire women to find their own style and pursue their dreams,” she says.

Silindile says she engages with wine every day and just loves the Delush Natural Sweet Rosé. “Not just because I love the colour, but the taste is fresh and fruity I drink it whenever I relax or hang out with friends.”

About the Delush Fearless Tastemaker, she says: “This is so me! Go-getting, a taste for style and flair, a desire to inspire other…..when I saw the criteria for the competition I just had to enter as I ticked all those boxes.”

Nomfundo Mlaba

For the first time, the Delush Fearless Tastemaker has had a journalist entering the competition. 23 year-old Nomfundo Mlaba is a reporter on a community newspaper in Durban, but hails from a rural village in the Pietermaritzburg region.

“Going from my village to school each day brought me in contact with an urban environment, very much different to my home. This stimulated me to find out more about the other world out there, to go out and look for the bigger picture.”

And what is more stimulating, she says, than the world of journalism where you get the chance to tell other people’s stories and to keep the world posted on news events.

“I studied journalist at Durban University, after which I worked as an intern on a radio station, which was great. But I knew to become a true professional I would have to find about all aspects of the journalism profession and this brought me to the newspaper so I can get experience in print and broaden my horizons.”

Nomfundo also brings a sense of style to her journalism field. “With the advent of social media, we are all brands. It is therefore important for me to break the mould and be stylish in my appearance. If you have respect for the way you look, other people will respect your professionalism which helps in the field of journalism.”

Her work at the Northglen News in Durban is all-consuming. “Deadlines, oh deadlines! On a community newspaper we are a small staff and get to cover all kinds of stories. And besides creating content for the newspaper there is the website that has to be fed with news, so you are never off duty.”

Delush, says Nomfundo, is a stylish drink which she enjoys while relaxing. “And it is such a great campaign the brand has embarked on with the Delush Fearless Tastemaker. It is original and exciting, and your influencer programme really works –  Njabs influenced me in entering!”

As the first lady from KZN to make it this far in the competition, Nomfundo’s first flight in an aeroplane was from Durban to Johannesburg to attend the Top 10 finalist party, another list of achievements in a sparkling young career.