Kutlwano Magazine

SENT FROM HEAVEN - Vivante and Gaona tie the knot

Source : BOPA

Author : Pako Lebanna

Location : Kanye

Event : Vivante and Gaona Wedding

Their romance began on the sets of Botswana Television (Btv), and they made a good job of keeping their relationship secret – until the day they informed their colleagues that they were planning to get married! They did that on Saturday October 6, 2012 in the beautiful, hilly Bangwaketse capital of Kanye. As the warm draft of a transiting reluctant spring made way to simmering summer, the mega village bubbled with joy, especially among folks at goo-Ruele. This would be a day to remember by many of the folks here as popular TV and radio personality Thobo Tlhasana aka Vivante, was bringing his bride home, an equally beloved television personality, Nketso Gaona Dintwe. This was the second leg of the wedding, the first having been celebrated at Gaone’s home village of Lentswe-le-moriti.

Looking radiant in a black suit and bow tie, and beautifully complementing his bride in her white wedding dress, Thobo, who recently took up assignment with Delta Dairies as Sales and Marketing Manager, is obviously a very happy man.

‘Ke bone mosadi, ke iponetse mosadi,’ (I got myself a real lady), Thobo almost chants as he talks to Kutlwano on his way from Ntsweng, the hilly side of the village, where he had gone to change attire, before heading back to the event venue at Goo-Ruele.

His radiant face would have reminded you of happy Bassanio, the young man who after winning over beautiful Portia in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice would not stop talking about her. “Gaona ke mosadi wa nnete,” (she is a real lady), he repeats – dreamily - for the third time, and you want to believe he is counting his lucky stars.

No, it was not the television star he fell in love with, he is quick to say. From the time he set eyes on her, he knew that no matter how many times the dice was thrown to disprove their destiny, he would marry her. It was especially her down-to-earth personality that led him to proposing.

He believes her Christian upbringing must have a lot to do with her hugely beautiful personality. “She was raised in a respectful, religious home and this background has grounded her, making her a worthy partner,” he beams as he describes his Btv morning show presenter wife. This is what he wants people to know. It was not the glitz and glamour of TV and radio that brought them together. Just the fact that they are man and woman, who found out they loved one another, had a lot in common and knew beyond doubt that they could build a family together. Like the beautiful complement that she is, Gaona agrees. “We were friends and colleagues before we began dating. Along the way we realised that we were meant for each other,” she says, a smile lighting up her pretty face. “We have become very close, and when we started dating, we kept it a secret from our colleagues and our audience, we remained private about it, she says. They both have deep Christian roots and have been praying together, even for their wedding. Vivante and Gaona are particularly alive to public expectation and that it can be unrealistic. Remember a story carried not very long ago by The Voice about how Thobo wore a partially torn shoe to a football match?

“Yes, we realise that we are treated as celebrities, and it is a wonderful thing to be in the public spotlight. But deep down we are ordinary people with budgets, with constraints, we lead a normal life, and while I realise the responsibility of being a role model, I will never sacrifice who I am, and Gaona is a person who complements me in that regard,” he says.

In fact that was the reason the couple chose to have the first leg of the wedding in far away Lentswe-le-moriti, the remote refuge of the Bakgatla of the Zion Christian Church (ZCC) persuasion who fled Kgatleng during the reign of Molefi (father of Linchwe II, grandfather of Kgafela II).

“We wanted that experience, the bundus, a village where alcohol is not allowed, where women cover their heads, very traditional, very grounding, we wanted to have a marriage which has that sort of foundation, and also to unite the two families,” explains Thobo. That should set the pace for his future handling of public expectation.

While he is full-time at his new job at Delta Dairies, Thobo hopes to continue working part-time for the media that made him.“I plan to continue at RB2 and Btv,freelancing, it is a job I love.” He created many a friend as a sports journalist, and one of them, Yarona FM sports editor Thabo Osekeng, was the best man at the wedding. It is the same Thabo who coined Duma FM’ stag phrase ‘ga re tshamekelemo industry-ng’ (we do not play about in this industry), at the time he worked for the station.

“We have been close for about four years now; we turn to each other for advice, both in our personal lives and in private,” adds Thabo or the ‘The Brand’ as he calls himself. Vivante and Gaona are not hoping for a fairy tale marriage. However they are happy that theirs had the full blessing of both families. Lately a rare feat in marriages, the Bangwaketse and Bakgatla, were united and supported the couple in all their endeavours.

“I was very well received in Lentswe-le-moriti, and Gaone has been well received in Kanye,” says Thobo. And you can bet Gaona seriously took all the traditional and Christian advice she received from the older folks and pastors.

“I am here to stay,” Gaona says. “He is my husband, I will stick by him. I know there are problems that exist within the institution of marriage and I will work through them when I encounter them. I shall be the support system for my husband,” she says soberly. Listening to her string out these words, you want to imagine her as British pop songstress Dido who sings in her classic White Flag: “I’m going down with this ship/I will not put my hands up and surrender/there will be no white flags up on my door/I’m in love, and always will.” It is a song Gaone must have played many times as she spun discs at RB2