In Conversation With Trevor: Sibanda: I owe my success to upbringing

By The Southern Eye | Mar. 13, 2022

There is a higher power that seems to lead me and for me, like you said, from a camera to where I am and from where I was born to be where I am to be on a big stage like Miss Universe, for example.

Former Miss Universe Zimbabwe Langelihle Sibanda says she owes her success to her parents, who brought her up to be humble.

Sibanda (LM), who is now a renowned entrepreneur, told Alpha Media Holdings (AMH) chairman Trevor Ncube (TN) on the platform In Conversation with Trevor that growing up in rural Kezi, Matabeleland South and learning life skills from her parents shaped her character.

She is the founder and creative director of The House Of Langa, and the owner of the Edge Cafe. Below are excerpts from the interview.

TN: Langelihle Langa Sibanda, what a beautiful name, welcome to In Conversation With Trevor.

LS: Thank you, thank you Trevor. This is an honour.

I have admired you from a distance, and today I am sitting on the couch. Isn’t that exciting?

TN: Absolutely.

LS: Thank you, thank you.

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TN: Great honour having you my sister. We have been planning to do this for a while.

I am delighted we are doing it. I mean I have known you for a while, and as we meet I must say sincere condolences, we lost a friend, a friend to me, a brother to me, Dumisani Sibanda.
Talk to me about the grieving process of losing this amazing man?
Who was very close to me, obviously close to you as a brother, how has been the grieving journey?

LS: It is difficult Trevor.

You know as an African grieving is one of those things.

I do not think we even understand it because sometimes when we see someone crying with their hands up here, we think oh she is over doing it.

Then when you keep quiet they say she doesn’t care.

I have learnt over the last two months, my brother passed away in December 2021, we buried him on Christmas Eve.

What I have noticed is, and what I am going through, is something I am not going to hide.

If I feel like falling down and crying, I will do it.

Sometimes I talk about him and I do not cry, but there are times I talk about him and I am a mess, but I am allowing myself to go through that because grief is that love we have for someone that we have lost.

Sometimes it collects at the corner of our eyes, and it comes out as tears and I should allow that.

He is one brother that I will miss dearly, a tall guy, a wonderful gentle giant.

One thing I remember about my brother is when I was about 13 years old he bought me my first bra.

That is how attentive my brother was, he knew that his little sister was growing up.

I remember he put it on for me, and it is a memory that I treasure because that is the deep love that my brother and I had.

I will continue to miss him and I will continue to mourn him, and I will continue to share his story when I am able to.

He has got two beautiful daughters and I see him through them.

So I have something to look at all the time. I will miss him dearly though.

TN: Wow. I mean Dumisani and I were pretty close.

We were at university together. When the news broke that he had passed on after a car accident, a friend Norman Khumalo, who is in the USA I think, reached out to remind me of a day when we were young and had a few drinks and started a little fight.

LS: Oh, right?

TN: So yeah it took me there. In Conversation With Trevor partly started because I am fascinated by our life journeys and our purpose and how we eventually get to our purpose.

The things that we stumble over and the things that we go through.
Looking at your life, I was like this is very interesting.
A camera started you off on your entrepreneurial journey, you went into modelling, you became Miss Universe Zimbabwe.
You represented Zimbabwe. You flew the flag in Las Vegas.
You are now an entrepreneur. You started a restaurant, The Edge, The House Of Langa is out there doing its thing.
If you were to sum up your life in one word, what would that be?

LS: I think one word would be tough because I am such a tall individual, it has to be two at least. Hahaha.

I think I am abundantly gifted, because I do not think what I have achieved, what I am doing, I am doing it all alone.

There is a higher power that seems to lead me and for me, like you said, from a camera to where I am and from where I was born to be where I am to be on a big stage like Miss Universe, for example.

I do not think I had planned that, but God is always at play.

He knows my wants my desires.He paved the way for me to an extent when I look back at my life, I never thought I would be sitting In Conversation with Trevor for example, because I look at this programme, or I look at your show as one of those shows that has the big names in my country, the big names in the world and who am I to sit here?

But I know I am chosen to be here so I am blessed to be here.

However, my story really starts from humble beginnings.

I was born from a father who was an agricultural extension officer, and a mom who was just a stay at home mom, but a very smart woman and I get the strength from her.

I get the humility from my father because all these titles that you have just said can make one lose their way, but I have remained grounded because of my upbringing.

I am blessed that I had the parents that I have, the family that I have.

Even when I was Miss Universe Zimbabwe, I do not remember any of my siblings treating me any differently.

I would get home, my mom would say Langa do the dishes, Langa you are cooking today.

So it never changed who I was, but it kept me grounded and it left me realising that no matter how big people think you are, family will always put you in your place.

TN: Haha yeah.

LS: I often laugh at my brothers.

They should be worshipping the ground I walk on, but no they do not care Trevor!

I am a little sister and when they go “MaSibanda” I know I am being called and I should do like that.

So, no my journey has been a fascinating one.

TN: Shall we start at the beginning?

LS: Yes.

TN: You were born in Kezi? Talk to me about that?

Your upbringing and what your upbringing did to you in terms of your worldview?

LS: Okay. I was born in Kezi. A very semi-arid region in Matebeleland South.

Of course I was named Langelihle by my father, which I think that name on its own sets the tone because it is always going to be a beautiful day you know in my life.

So being born in Kezi and coming from that rural background, I think that on its own gives you your roots, gives you your base.

It humbles you. It shows you the other side.

I only moved from Kezi to Bulawayo because of the liberation war.

My father being an extension officer was viewed as working for the government of the day.

So that left our lives in a situation where it was not comfortable anymore, and the school where I had started my Grade 1 and 2 got closed due to the war.

So we had to move to Bulawayo where I continued with my education and I went to Lozikeyi Primary School.

I never went to any fancy schools until high school.

For my base it was my mom and my dad and my brothers.

That unit of love and knowing that I felt protected when I was in Kezi.

Even during the war I was too young to understand, but I still felt protected and loved and that love, that protection, those values and virtues that I got from being a child and understanding that you work hard for what you get.

You do not just go to school and expect results to sit on your lap, you work hard for them.

My father was an academic who loved us to be doing better than him, that was always his statement.

He would say whatever you do in life I want you to do better than me.

I want you to be better than me and that is when he knew he would have lived and would have done well.

So I grew up knowing I had to do better than my father.

I also grew up knowing that I am allowed to be who I am, but I should start with education.

So even anything that I have done, education had to come first.

My father always said to me if you have education you have a chance in life because no one can take that away from you.

There are certain things that you can have but they can all just be stripped off, but education opens doors, education will give you a respect that you might not get.

And it is true, because when you look at it, when I started modelling people respected the fact that I had a degree.

The fact that my father would not allow me to do modelling any earlier because he was like “no, modelling is for the people who are less academic”.

TN: Let’s talk about the education. So where did you start? Where were you educated?

LS: I started at Homestead Primary School in Kezi, which is a very small school.

I support it now, but it is a very small school. I went to Lozikeyi Primary School and then I went to Evelyn High.

TN: Lozikeyi was known for a lot of sports people?

LS: It was athletics.

TN: Yes athletics, I remember that.

LS: Absolutely. The one with a red uniform.

TN: Yes!

LS: I know that one. Then Evelyn High and then I finished my A’Level at Townsend High School.

From there I went to the University of Zimbabwe.

TN: What did you study at the University Of Zimbabwe?

LS: Well I wanted to do Law, but I fell short in my points and I ended up doing Political Science and Administration.

I do not know, in my head I thought one day I will be the first lady president! Hahaha I am joking!

But genuinely I would have preferred law, but when I look back and the way things have gone, the Political Science degree became so open, it was not restrictive as far as I am concerned, but law and that reading of volumes and volumes, I do not think it was for me really to be honest.

TN: You might know this about me, like you I wanted to do Law and I missed Law by one point.

LS: Oh no.

TN: But I share it because it was a very traumatic experience. I wanted to do Law, I wanted to be a lawyer.

In that day, in that particular moment it was the worst thing to happen to me, but when I look now, like I said when we started, I am fascinated by what God does in terms of ordering our steps.
I would have been the worst lawyer that anybody has ever seen, but more importantly, that reading of the Law books and so forth, I do not think I would have been able to cope with that.
So fascinating that you also wanted to be a lawyer!

LS: Yes.

TN: You ended up not being a lawyer, and you are saying now, the degree that you have right now is the right degree for you?

LS: Absolutely.

“In Conversation With Trevor” is a weekly show broadcast on YouTube.com//InConversationWithTrevor. Please get your free YouTube subscription to this channel. The conversations are sponsored by Nyaradzo Group.