At age 40, the multi-hyphenated star shares that her journey into music is not a reinvention, but a return — to her voice, her truth and reclaiming who she’s always been.
At 40, Relebogile Mabotja is not slowing down — she is opening up.
Not in the way the world often expects of women who have already “made it,” but in a way that feels deeply personal. With the release of her music project, Still Me, she has stepped into a space that has always been hers, but one she is only now ready to share fully.
It’s a bold move for someone whose career has stretched across radio, television, acting and production. Most recently, she produced the South African Film and Television Awards, shaping one of the industry’s biggest nights. But even that heavy milestone does not define this moment. What defines it is her decision to return to herself.
“I feel like I’m going back to who I’ve always been,” she reflects.
It is not a simple journey. It has asked her to meet the younger version of herself — the child who moved through life freely — and slowly rebuild that trust with her. “I’m still at the stage where 40-year-old me is saying to the little girl, ‘you can trust me, I’ve got you. I’m from the future, and everything you’re worried about is not that deep.’”
That return shows up not only in deep, inner work, but in how she chooses to live. She has made a quiet commitment to say yes to new experiences, to joy and to moments that feel unfamiliar. Whether it is travelling somewhere new or embracing spontaneity, she is leaning into curiosity again.
It is the same curiosity that has guided her back to music.
Music has always been part of her life, woven into childhood memories and carried through different phases of her career. But stepping forward as the voice behind her own words required a different kind of courage. “That’s like writing a diary and letting everybody read it,” she says.
For a long time, Relebogile was held back by fear. Not the fear of trying, but the fear of not fully using her gifts. “My biggest fear is getting to the end and realising I could have done more,” she admits. “There are things I’ve been born with that people wish they could have, and I’m not using them.”
But turning 40 shifted something. There is a clarity that comes with age — an understanding that what people think is not hers to carry.
Still Me is born from that clarity.
“The five-year-old you met is the same as the 28-year-old you heard on radio, the same as the 21-year-old presenting Dance Your Butt Off, the same as the 19-year-old you saw on Zone 14and Home Affairs,” she explains. “I have to clearly say that I’m still me because when somebody does something new, people think they’re changing. I’m not. I am all those things in one person.”
And through the music, they meet.
She describes the project as something that has unraveled her — in the most beautiful way. Each song holds pieces of her story: her healing, her grief, her growth. Some moments take her back to her grandmother, whose love still lives in her memory and in the music itself. Others reflect the quiet work of confronting parts of herself she once kept hidden.
“Sometimes I listen and I cry, like, I can’t believe those are my words. It’s scary, it’s painful, but it’s beautiful,” she says.
It is emotional. It is overwhelming. But it is also freeing.
For the first time in her, Relebogile admits that she is allowing herself to feel fully — without holding back. Whether on air, on stage, or in her music, she is embracing the fullness of who she is. And that, more than anything, marks her evolution.
Because this chapter is not about adding another title to her name. It is about alignment. About standing in her truth and owning it completely. About trusting that the desires she carries are there for a reason.
“I’m not waiting to find my why,” she says. “I’m building it.”
And in building it, she is also shaping a message that extends beyond her own story.
One about the power of women.
A power she describes as the ability to bring things to life. “As women, we are life-givers,” she says. “And that doesn’t only mean physically — it’s in everything we do. We can take an idea, something that doesn’t exist, and bring it to life. That’s our superpower.”
It is a power she sees in herself. In her work. In her music. In the life she continues to build.
In choosing to gift herself Still Me at 40, Relebogile Mabotja is doing more than adding another layer to her career. She is affirming something deeper: That becoming has no deadline.
And that everything she is meant to be has always been within her.