For many South Africans it’s the beginning of a new season – a season where flowers bloom, romance is in the air and wedding plans begin to gain more momentum.
With this in mind, we could not have picked a better season to launch a new chapter in the Previdar journey – the birth of Previdar Weddings, a publication that will be dedicated to showcasing and sharing stories around weddings, marriage and the love stories of some of South Africa’s most beautiful couples.
With this in mind, it gives us great pleasure to welcome Palesa Tembe and Velokuhle Ngubane, who have the privilege of being named the first-ever couple to don the cover of the newly inaugurated Previdar Weddings.
The cover stars sat down with our team to not only give us the scoop on their very own South African love story but also prepare themselves for their big day following their beautiful engagement, which trended across social media some months back.
We joke before the interview begins that nobody will ever be able to take away the fact that they were the first couple to ever don our new magazine’s cover – a small moment of history for a love story that deserves to be archived until the end of time.
From a chance encounter to a picture-perfect proposal, Pali and Veli’s story is a reminder to everybody who believes in romance that, not only does love exist, but it’s something worth working for.
This is their story:
PALESA TEMBE AND VELOKUHLE NGUBANE: ON THE ROAD TO SAYING “I DO”
I always like to start every interview with the first question. How does it feel to be you today:
Veli:
Grateful and blessed! Most of the things you plan for in life, and you never know whether it’s going to happen. Sure, you’ve got faith and trust in God but you don’t know if it will happen. So when things happen, it’s humbling!
We grew up with thoughts and dreams of getting married and having a family, thoughts of starting a business, thoughts of being admired and celebrated. So when all those things start falling into place, it’s truly humbling. The feeling I have is definitely grateful!
Palesa:
It seems like such a simple question but it’s quite a big question. For me, I echo the same – I feel grateful! When you are keeping your head down, doing your work every single day, starting your family, building your family, doing all of these things to build your life, sometimes you can forget to stop and smell the roses.
So being able to have a moment like this where you can stop and smell the roses is truly humbling, and seeing people wanting to celebrate our love story is just humbling. I am also very grateful.
Before we get to your story as a couple, for those reading, please introduce yourselves and tell us a bit more about yourselves individually:
Palesa:
I’m 33-years-old, born and raised in Durban. I’m a SAFTA-nominated (2021) on-air broadcaster and television presenter. I don’t ever want to call myself as a “TV Personality!” I want to be known for my work rather than being a socialite. I am also an actress and MC and voice artist. I’ve been a TV presenter for about six years now, I won Presenter Search on S3 in 2018 and I’ve been working on Afternoon Express.
I present for Afternoon Express, I’ve got two shows on the Home Channel, Finest Homes and Afrimax.
It’s been an amazing career journey, I studied BA in Drama and Psychology at Rhodes University. A lot of people don’t know that I started off as an actor and have acted on shows like Isibaya, commercials and other gigs. From here, it’s always a natural progression to become a voice artist and start doing MC work.
Last but certainly not least, this year I was named as one of Mail and Guardian’s Top 200 Young Soiuth Africans and this was truly a brilliant milestone for me.
Veli:
I’m a born and bred entrepreneur. I registered my business at the age of 16 but even before that, I was always interested in making money. When I played soccer at a young age, I would be the one saying “let’s raise the stakes and the winner takes a prize”. I used to sell things at my mom’s house, for example, we would make isiqheda (The popular kasi frozen ice treat) and I would sell it. I’ve been an entrepreneur from the jump, it’s in the blood.
I’ve got a BSoc/Sci in law, economy and politics but even after qualifying I decided to carry on as an entrepreneur and now I’m renowned as an award-winning creative and the founding partner of Avatar – the largest black-owned advertising group in South Africa. As much as I love entrepreneurship I think it works for me because I’m unemployable – I’d be fired in the first week if I was an employee!
With that out of the way, it’s time to ask the one question I’m sure you’ve been asked a hundred times…
Palesa and Veli both chime in… “ Let me guess, the question is ‘How did we meet?’ [Both laugh]
Palesa’s Version:
It’s such a long story I’ve now got a concise version of it! It began in 2019? I was invited to a dinner by a friend in Cape Town, and I was free so happy to join. I was also told that a few of that friend’s mutual friends will also be there. On the way to the dinner I kept being told about this advertising hotshot, “Veli Ngubane” and my friend couldn’t stop talking about him.
The dinner comes and goes and it was a great evening, but at some point, Veli loses his phone. So now there’s drama, everyone is looking for this phone, we’re worried someone might have snatched it – stressful times.
Veli adds: “At that time we were also doing an election campaign so I was particularly dstresed because that phone had a lot of confidential information relating to an election campaign that was about to go live! Just to put it into context of how important that phone was at the time!”
Palesa Continues:
He ends up leaving and he’s disappointed. I stay behind, and wouldn’t you know it, several moments later jiki jiki, here is this phone!
Literally, it was a Cinderella Glass Slipper moment!
So I had already hit it off with one of his family members, so I get in touch with her and the next day she delivers it to Veli and that was the end of that.
Or so we thought…
Palesa Continues:
Fast forward to around 2022, I’m at a restaurant in Cape Town with a friend and guess who is at the same restaurant? The very same ‘Velokuhle Ngubane’ from that infamous night and he actually comes up to me and says ‘hey! You’re the person who found my phone’ and since then Veli has refused to leave my side! He even sent a picture of me to his family there and then!
Veli:
Yes, we have a family WhatsApp group and I just knew there and then. So much so, I sent them a message saying “Hey family, I think I’ve found my wife! Nang’ uMakoti wethu! (here is our bride!)”
That’s the kind of story that makes you believe that love is a thing of fate, rather than chance. Let’s fast forward to another special day – the proposal, Veli how did you pull that off (with or without Palesa knowing!)
Veli:
The responsibility of carrying a prized ring across Cape Town was stressful! I kept checking my pockets, I had to insure it, sometimes you think it’s in your jacket but it’s in your pockets. Just that responsibility of picking up the ring, having it on you and having to pretend… i can’t keep secrets very well so I think she kind of knew because I was so nervous!
So what I did is, I phoned the producers of Pali’s show on Afternoon Express and told them ‘I want to propose but can you make her believe that she is about to shoot something for the show?’
Now, as much as I ‘like things’ I actually don’t like being in front of the camera! So that aspect of everything added to the nerves as well.
I planned everything personally, I booked a chopper, I organised a pianist and not just to play on any piano – Palesa likes the colour white, and I realised in Stellenbosch (where the proposal took place) there were only TWO white pianos available for hire. The one wasn’t available, I phoned everywhere but eventually found the second one. I only wanted a white piano!
I was really hands-on in planning every detail, down to the flowers, the venue, and orchestrating everything. But with all my nerves… she knew I was up to something!
Palesa:
For me I kind of suspected something was up but you need to understand, this guy had been trolling me for months with fake proposals! He would pretend to go down on one knee in the middle of Nicolway Mall or other places, so I was already tired of the joke!
But on the day I could sense something was up. Just little cues like him asking me to get my nails done. I remember we were in a jewellery store prior to this where he asked me to try on a ring just to see. Meanwhile, he was planning all this!
I had a sense, but I will give him credit for pulling it off beautifully!
While this sounds like THE perfect fairytale/love story, we also understand that … life happens. What would you say have been some of the challenges that have come with the journey you are on?
Veli:
I think it’s important for people to understand that it hasn’t always been easy, especially on our journey. A long part of our relationship has been spent in different cities, we were dating long distance and that had its challenges, you know?
As well as that, I have a son with whom I entered this relationship and we both had to navigate how that works, but Pali and Aliko get along so well and love each other.
But yes I just want to emphasise that although we are so blessed, it hasn’t come without its challenges.
And with all that being said, what’s next on your journey especially when it comes to both wedding planning and traditional marriage customs?
Veli:
Big question indeed! So the thing is, before I prepared the proposal, I ensured that our families were on the same page and my family notified Palesa’s family that we would like to pay Lobola for their daughter. I come from a family where you can’t just go down on one knee and propose to somebody’s daughter without having formally introduced your families together through the practice of Lobola so it was very important that we honoured that.
Palesa:
As for what’s coming next, we will now be preparing for our next traditional ceremonies. We will soon welcome him to the Tembe family (before the white wedding) and we are maybe looking at early next year. I’ve got a big family and we are looking forward to welcoming Veli and the Ngubane family to ours.
And then we will get into the white wedding planning which should hopefully happen during the hotter months of next year! We are still assessing everything and looking at venues, and ideas that we have (although we know the venue we want!)
And once that is done, the most important chapter will be when I am now welcomed into the Ngubane family as a wife and a daughter as we seal our union completely with our families.
And can we expect invites when the day comes?
No promises, but keep an eye on your inbox!
