André Hattingh
André made her professional debut at the age of 13, when she and her sister toured South Africa singing some of their own compositions.
After completing a drama degree at Natal University, she moved to Johannesburg, where she was immediately cast as Catherine in Pippin. She was an overnight success and went on to become one of South Africa’s best-loved musical-comedy stars, appearing in shows such as Tomfoolery, Little shop of horrors, Side by side by Sondheim, Noel and Gertie and Two tickets to Broadway.
André became a household name when she hosted South Africa’s first TV children’s show, called Bangalory time. Many TV appearances and shows and a film followed.
In 1987, André added another string to her bow by bringing out her own clothing line. For several years, she didn’t perform, as all her energy went into establishing herself as one of South Africa’s leading lights in ethnic fashion design. She brought out a collection for the opening of the Lost City, and in 1999 she exhibited her Images of Africa collection in Paris to great acclaim. She ran her own exclusive studio in Parktown North for 25 years. She made enough unique garments to dress the number of women that would fill Ellis Park.
During this time, she still used her musical skills and wrote and recorded the songs for two CDs, Journey of love and Change your world, which were inspired by her journey of overcoming cancer. She also presented her own inspirational one-hour talk, called Colours of my life. During the last eight years before the lockdown, she performed a show called Forever young with her sister and honed her guitar-playing skill.
In 2022, she composed a song called Gathering the stars in memory of all the people in the entertainment world who passed away during the pandemic. A very successful music video of the song was released.
In 2023, she wrote an animation screenplay called Secret of the angeltree and was selected as a finalist for the WGSA Muse Awards in recognition of outstanding achievement in writing. She hopes to publish a children’s book based on this script.
In 2024, she published a poetry book called My Leaves stay green and performed a 40-minute show, reading her poetry and singing her songs.
Lucky bastard
2025-12-11He grew up in a good household near Durban. At a delicate age, he learned that he was adopted. It shook his sense of identity, as he no longer was the boy he had been brought up to be. In his recently completed memoir, Lucky bastard, Anthony Akerman focuses primarily on how his life was shaped by the knowledge of his adoption.
My leaves stay green: a soupçon
2025-12-11One of the songs from her 2013 album Change your world is called “My leaves stay green”. This song was written during her journey through chemotherapy. It is also the title of her recently published book of “poetree”, a collection of pop-up poems inspired by trees that she shared on Facebook during the COVID lockdown.
