Thando Thabethe on being business savvy – ‘It keeps me ambitious, it keeps me dreaming’

Radio personality and South African Film and Television (SAFTA) award-winning actress Thando Thabethe not only has Mzansi covered with her antics on her afternoon drive show, season two of her reality show Unstoppable Thabooty is back with more wholesome content.

Set to premiere on BET on 20 January 2024, Unstoppable Thabooty’s second season shows off Thando and her closest friends and family’s growth as well as her businesses.

Sharing to TRUELOVE what she’s most looking forward to showing viewers, she says, “I think the thing I’m most excited about is just unveiling new opportunities, revealing how everyone has sort of grown since the first season and how they’re, you know, creating goals and smashing them.”

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The How to Ruin Christmas actress has gone above and beyond with creating and smashing her goals, establishing the underwear and shapewear line Thabooty’s in 2017.

Thando has also recruited her sister Sanele ‘Sasa’ Thabethe as creative director of the brand, which fans will see more of in the upcoming season of the reality show. The clothing is now created by Thando’s manufacturing company Redwood Manufactures, where Sasa also acts as the production and operations manager.

Thando explains just how much her shapewaer business has flourished in the past year.

“It’s grown just in the last 12 months in ways that are hard even sometimes for me to fathom. It’s got now a sister wing of Redwood Manufacturers, so that’s a factory that’s suited to Thabooty’s needs so a lot of what we make now is proudly South African. And also, we hope to - as Redwood Manufacturers, of course - service textile needs of the different companies.”

It’s safe to say that the 33-year-old media personality is heading towards mogul status, now that she also has a production company titled Redwood Productions co-founded with her best friend Tumi Maimela in October 2022, which produces Thando’s reality show.

“I hope I’m heading to mogul status,” she laughs.

“I think, ja, mogul is somebody who – I guess media mogul – would be somebody who dabbles in different parts and different ways of media and creates multiple streams of income. Unfortunately, the industry we work in requires that of us. Requires us to find multiple streams of income but also fortunately, I really do like all that I do and am I heading to mogul status? I hope so!”

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Being able to work with and flourish with the people closest to her is something she holds dear to her, and growing together with people like Sasa and Tumi paves the way for future success.

“I think it’s important to have people work next to you, I mean, working with my sister has just been absolutely phenomenal. She’s an incredible talent, she’s very hardworking and what it means is we’re able to keep it in the family, which we’re very fortunate about and it’s one of my favourite things being able to spend time with those that I love,” she says.

Thando is set on keeping busy and venturing into different avenues, explaining that, “It means a lot to be able to venture into different avenues, it keeps me very busy. It keeps me ambitious, it keeps me dreaming.”

There’s much more on the horizon for Thando, especially with her production company. She hopes to venture into more scripted content and teases a new project viewers can look forward to.

“We do have a project with Redwood Productions that is currently in development. It’s a scripted series that I wrote and will executive produce and star in and it’s something very close to my heart so I can’t wait for South Africa to see it one day.”