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South African celebrity couples take hands with National Marriage Week

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Several of our country’s well-known married personalities will stand up firmly for marriages during South Africa’s very first National Marriage Week, which will be held from 1-7 September 2013. The initiative, which is a joint venture of INTIEM magazine, ULSANIC, Intimacy4Us and the magazine I do, encourages married couples to take control over their marriages again.

Several promotional photo sessions for Marriage Week were held during July, where some of our country’s top artists in the entertainment industry and their life partners were present to act as ambassadors for the campaign.

The renowned actor Jerry Mofokeng (a South African legend who appeared in movies such as Cry, The Beloved Country, Mandela and De Klerk and Tsotsi) says: “To be married, provides a person with stability, identity and companionship. I am one of those people who just cannot stand loneliness. Marriage gives you the opportunity to come home to where you are loved, understood and supported. It is a feeling of ‘belonging’ . . .” Jerry and his wife, Claudine, are already married for 33 years.

Writer Hettie Brittz says about her marriage to singer Louis: “Our marriage turns 21 this year and you know, all that hard work that you do with a teenager – we did that work. We experienced many highlights and difficult times together, but realise that there is no fight that is worth fighting for more than this one.” Denvor (actor, videographer and song writer) and Michelle Pokaners also say: “We laugh often, we cry often. And as they say: We have eaten many bags of salt together.”

Fikile Mekgoe, Mrs South Africa and a software engineer, finds it exciting to still see the man with who she fell in love when she wakes up next to Tsepo in the morning. The singer Pieter Koen’s wife, Lotie, finds marriage exciting because there are so many challenges. “Although we sometimes fight, making up is so much nicer.” Wilhelm, husband of Lynné de Jager (Mrs South Africa 2012), says it is very nice to have his best friend with him the whole time. And Leslee Neshehe, wife of the soapie actor Mutodi, says: “The nicest part of being married to Mutodi is that he makes me laugh the whole time. We have lots of fun.”

The actors Altus Theart and Zetske van Pletzen’s dreams for their marriage include “to chase each other around in our wheelchairs at the old age home when we are old”, and Nico and Liezel van der Merwe (managing editor of INTIEM) feel that marriage is a safe harbour. “We refer to our marriage as our love nest and we are there for each other when the world out there gets wild.”

Press Release

Those ambassadors, as well as well-known celebrities such as Jakkie and Anel Louw, Joe and Ivana Manza, Liesel Krause-Wiid and Siebert, Mapaseke and Thabo Mokale, Schalk and Mandi Baard, Jak de Priester and Michelle, Mapaseka and Thabo Mokwele, Heinz and Alette Winckler, Queenie and Mio Khondleka, and Lloyd and Janice Cele are all actively participating in Marriage Week. They don’t hesitate to proclaim that, although marriage requires work, it is still one of the most rewarding relationships that you will ever have with another person.


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