Juggling flutes of bubbly and scoring fashion points
● When it comes to sport, there’s nothing posher to watch than polo.
It’s the sort of do where your biggest challenge is juggling a flute of the French bubbles in one hand and a canapé in the other as you watch men astride horses compete in scoring goals with long wooden mallets.
I did just that last Saturday afternoon at the Nedbank International Polo event held at Julius Malema’s stomping ground, the Inanda Club, near Sandton in Joburg.
As luck would have it, the first person I greet is someone who knows a thing or two about this equine pursuit. That’s Nicky van der Walt, himself a former top polo player, who arrived with his glam wife, Lee-Ann Liebenberg.
Onto Terry Pheto, who interpreted the day’s “Pattern Perfect” theme in a pair of wax print palazzo pants and matching top.
It was just days since Terry had landed another acting trophy, this time at a little-known British festival.
“How many awards do you own these days?,” I ask the actress, who came with her bestie, Mampho Brescia.
“I stopped counting after the Oscar,” she answers, referring to the Academy Award for best foreign language film which Tsotsi landed back in 2005.
In walked the sort of man who could afford a herd of polo ponies, industrialist Khudu Pitje, with his beautiful designer wife, Kgomotso Moloantoa.
The couple were luminescent in matching gold outfits, with Kgomotso telling me she had designed her husband’s shirt herself.
Opting for Italian flair in her choice of pattern was corporate high-flyer Fundi Sithebe, trés chic in headto-toe Versace.
But on the other hand, when I asked Suzette van der Merwe if she was wearing a distinctive Dolce & Gabbana design, it turns out that the former Miss SA, who recently turned 50, wasn’t wearing the real deal.
Oops! Elsewhere I spot another, more recent former Miss SA, Tamaryn Green, who will be moving up to Joburg permanently in the new year (could a new love interest have anything to do with that?).
Meanwhile, I thought striking model/lawyer
Thando Hopa looked more suited to a red-carpet affair than a day with the horses.
How about the grub? Suitably posh fair from caterers By Word of Mouth starting with meze boards, chili prawns and bowls of butternut ravioli when we arrived, a high tea which included coronation chicken sandwiches and refreshing St Clement’s posset in the afternoon, and for those with staying power there were late-night snacks of beef patties with truffle aioli and veg sliders.