She walks in, head held up and shoulders up straight.
Her walk is intentional.
Even though she has heels on, it looks as though she’s wearing sneakers instead.
With her braids tied back, she holds a bouquet of flowers and chocolates in her hand.
Beside her, is a man holding a glass vanity bag with two crowns in them and a red and white sash written “International Girl” in front and “Mathabo” at the back.
With time, Drum learns that this man is not only her father, Thabo Matlou but also her manager and bodyguard. Rare as it may be, he proudly laughs as he says, “I need to protect her”.
It isn’t until we sat down with the last born and only daddy’s girl for a chat that Mathabo Matlou tells the story of when and how her pageantry journey began with the support of father mostly.
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“As a child, I always loved the glamorous side of things that was my mom's makeup, her clothes, her shoes. I remember every time she went to work, and I was on school holidays, I'd sneak into her bedroom and make a mess of her things. And the thing is, she knows her stuff. She knows how she packs her stuff and things like that. So even if I try and pack it again, the same way I found it, she'd see. So, every day, I was in trouble, because I always mess up.
“At six years old, we were at church, and it was after the service. This lady was taking pictures of me and [was calling me her model and I was] so comfortable in front of a camera,” she remembers.
Although the lady was only admiring her, little Mathabo finally had a name that explained what she wanted to be.
In all this, “my dad actually noticed that this child has confidence, and he convinced my mom to find me a school or a modeling agency.”
When her parents finally found her a modeling school, they enrolled her and at eight years old, she started her first classes.
For the two to three years that followed though, it was practice, practice, practice and no placement or wins for Mathabo in any of the competitions that were run annually.
Instead of quitting though, she continued to invest her time in modeling because she really enjoyed nothing else as much.
When she entered Miss Benoni at the age of 10 though, she finally reaped the fruits of her dedication.
“I got into top 10. So then, before they announced the top three, every contestant comes out and you do like a parade, and we get our participation gifts. They announced first princess, and it was my name. I don't think at that age, I was really used to wearing heels yet. But somehow, I ran up the stairs, I ran for that crown,” she says as her face shows the excitement all over again.
Little did she know that this was the beginning of a winning season in her life because the next competition she entered which was compulsory because it was hosted by the agency, she was a part of, she won model of the year.
“I was wearing a pink dress with like white lace,” she tells Drum.
After this, she won the same title for three consecutive years.
At 14 years old, she took up an even greater challenge of finding a more advanced modeling school and entering more than one competition per year.
Although this clashed with her academics at first, her parents sternly told her that she would have to give as much attention to her academics as she did the modeling if she didn’t want to be removed from the modeling school.
The greatest challenge to her though was starting from the bottom at the new modeling school which meant no more placements and no more wins.
By the end of that year though, Mathabo had gone back to being placed as second princess.
Before she knew it, she was competing in a new competition almost every week with more than two modeling classes each week on top of her high school classes.
After coming second in the International Junior Miss South Africa in 2021, Mathabo broke down for the first time for not winning a pageant.
“It's that moment where I'm holding hands with another girl. And they're going to announce the winner. And I come second, you know, with this experience, I would rather come third than second,” she shares.
"This is because when the winner is announced and it’s not you, you’re shoved aside and instantly, your existence on stage is forgotten.
The pageant queen describes this as “brutal”.
Even that didn’t break her spirit though because the following year, she entered the pageant again and became the International Miss Junior South Africa 2022/23.
Shortly after bagging this title, she was scouted to represent South Africa at the International Girl pageant in the USA.
Years back, she had envisioned herself going to America at the age of 16 and now at 17, she was going to her first international pageant and first trip outside of the country to live her dream.
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“I didn't go overseas for myself; I didn't go as an individual. But I went, carrying my country. I went with my flag, I went there for girls who are my age or even younger, even older, you know, and my thing was, I want to be successful in a foreign land.”
“I was there for two weeks. I didn't have pap for two weeks. It was quite hard,” she laughs.
Scared and sick as she was hours before the pageant in July 2023, the girl with big dreams ascended the American stage and brought back the title which came with the opportunity to grace the prestigious runway of New York Fashion Week in September.
She says although they butchered her name with the American accent, she immediately jumped for joy internally as soon as the winner was announced.
Now that she is jetting off to the US again for the fashion running from 7 to 13 September, Mathabo is over the moon to finally see the modelling side of her dreams also come to life.
She doesn't plan to end it all there though.
The ambitious pageant queen wants to pursue law after matric and still gun for the Miss SA and Miss Universe titles.
