Nine fast, famous and funny SA celebs to watch in 2020

Take a leading soapie star, add one of the world's fastest men and throw in a social media phenom who trends on local Twitter every other week.

Blend in a comedian with a heart, a fashion trailblazer and a 26-year-old making waves in corporate SA.

Then garnish with a rugby star whose sneakers are gaining a cult following, a singing culinary queen and the gorgeous woman whose wedding was the most lavish the country has seen.

These are my picks of the A-listers to watch in 2020. And what better way to celebrate them than with a four-course lunch in the penthouse suite of Joburg's shiny new luxury resort, the Houghton Hotel?

Taking the lift to the five-star hotel's Rockstar Suite, I am joined by a towering 22-year-old in a salmon-coloured suit finished off with sneakers.

That's Lions flanker Hacjivah Dayimani, who, when he's not in rugby boots, sports a footwear brand called Hibacci that has mushroomed since he started it on a whim a few months ago.

Hacjivah tells me that over the festive season he drove around Joburg handing out 55 pairs of sneakers to street kids. Exiting the lift, I introduce the rugby lad to a vision in Valentino red, Dr Portia Gumede, whose aesthetic centre, Dr P, is reportedly thriving.

Her IT magnate husband Robert Gumede once owned the team Hacjivah plays for and whose 2010 wedding attracted A-listers from all over the world.

We all pick up flutes of Martini Prosecco, while those like Portia who don't drink alcohol enjoy the Italian drinks company's alcohol-free Dolce 0.0 option.

Then it's on to greeting Thameenah Saint, who proves you can be fashionable without showing skin - in fact, her chic approach to modest fashion made her a winner at the SA Style Awards late last year.

In walks the man who, fingers crossed, will be on the Olympics podium come July in Japan: sprinter Akani Simbine, who joins us before heading back to train at Pretoria's High Performance Centre.

As waiters proffer canapés including crispy tarte tatin with balsamic-infused tomato and slivers of rib eye with fresh chimichurri, I head on to the balcony to take in the view with Jason Goliath, one of SA's hardest-working comedians.

Jason is just back from a trip to the US for the launch of the Amandla project, which aims to help disabled students intern and study in SA.

Back inside, I say hello to corporate mover and shaker Ze Nxumalo, who also picked up a Style Award last year, his in the business category.

And then in walk Generations actress Zoe Mthiyane and singing celebrity chef Lucia Mthiyane, who have more than a surname in common.

It turns out Zoe's off-screen (and until recently on-screen) leading man, Rapulana Seiphemo, once dated Lucia.

Lunch begins with two starters - seared salmon and spinach and ricotta panzerotti - before a mains choice of grilled line fish with smoked paprika and pimento peppers perched on a giant prawn, or a chateaubriand with chargrilled pineapple cubes and Parisian potatoes.

Our last guest arrives: a woman who, as Zoe says, "only needs to cough and she trends on Twitter". Hello Mihlali Ndamase, whose YouTube makeup tutorials have a massive following.

For the third annual A-listers lunch we pulled out all the goodie-bag stops with the help of events empress Jill Grogor and her Zebra Square team.

Each of my guests was given handy Glampalm travel plugs, a voucher from Amani Spas and a night at the Houghton Hotel.

THE A-LISTERS TO WATCH IN 2020

PORTIA GUMEDE

Portia’s lavish two-day nuptials to IT billionaire Robert Gumede are said to have been the most expensive wedding SA has ever seen.

The medical doctor, whose recently launched Dr P Aesthetic Centre in Hyde Park, Joburg, is drawing a jetset clientele, wore a silk duchess Gavin Rajah wedding gown with a 6m train and arrived at the chapel in a silver Rolls Royce as the 100-strong KZN Philharmonic Orchestra sang Ave Maria.

This year marks the couple’s tenth  anniversary – and word is that the social whirl can expect an equally lavish affair to that 2010 fest which boasted a whopping 2,500 guest list including the ANC’s Bheki Cele, US singer Kenny Lattimore and businesswoman Basetsana Kumalo.

HACJIVAH DAYIMANI

The son of a practising Xhosa sangoma and an Igbo Jew from Nigeria, his name is a combination of "Akiva" which means "shelter" or "protect" in Hebrew and "achiever".

Fitting for a rising Golden Lions star who sports the No 8 jersey and who, in his downtime has turned a passion for kicks into a thriving business – his Hibacci footwear brand sold out twice last year, and he recently partnered with fellow Generation Z-er Lasizwe Dambuza on a hot new design.

THAMEENAH SAINT

Makeup artist and stylish Thameenah designs all the clothes she wears to reflect her religious beliefs – and her inimitable style has seen her rise as the face of modest fashion in the country.

Last year she received the ultimate accolade, the 2019 SA Style Award as the Next Big Thing.

AKANI SIMBINE

Come July, Akani is the name we are going to be screaming out as we watch the Summer Olympics in July, hoping that the sprinter does us proud in the 100m and 200m.

While he failed to pick up a medal in Qatar recently, here’s hoping that his hard work pays off and he emulates the success which saw him become 2018 Commonwealth Games champ.

ZE NXUMALO

He wet his entrepreneurial feet while in varsity, thanks to a masterstroke which saw him grow an income on ride-sharing app Uber with vehicles he’d convinced a car dealership to rent out.

Today Ze, at just 26 years old, sports a range of directorships, including executive director for investment Richmark Holdings, along with an advisory role to the SA Taxi association.

JASON GOLIATH

When he’s not getting us to chuckle into our cornflakes as part of Kaya FM’s breakfast line-up, he is egging on his team-mates as a team captain on TV gameshow Celebrity Game Night and juggling an increasingly international stand-up career.

This besides being an all round nice guy, and his passion for philanthropy, including the US-based Amandla Project.

LUCIA MTHIYANE

With a career spanning theatre and TV which saw her name in lights when many of today’s celebs were in their diapers, Lucia is a singer and actress described as SA’s answer to Tina Turner.

Her passion for cooking for her friends and family has seen this former school teacher find a new career as a sought-after self-taught chef.

Keep an eye out for her debut cookbook, The Kitchen Queen, which arrives in bookstores in May and which will be brimming with her take on the everyday simple recipes she’s grown to love over the decades.

ZOE MTHIYANE

Her real life reads like a soap opera: raised in a polygamous family, Zoe’s love interests have been tabloid fodder thanks to high profile relationships (and kids) with sportscaster Robert Marawa and musical legend Lebo M.

But it is her role as Zitha on Generations which is making the TV world sit up and notice this leggy actress: not since Ntsiki has a female character on what remains the nation’s most watched soapie been so conniving and vindictive.

MIHLALI NDAMASE

Even if you’d never watched her Youtube tutorials or follow her on Instagram, chances are you might have heard of the social influencer who shut down Twitter over speculation that she was dating Lewis Hamilton.

Mihlali says that, while she wants to be known for her work, which includes the charitable Siyasizana Foundation she co-founded, others seem fixated on her personal life – and her cryptic post about the Formula 1 superstar which got tongues wagging last year was simply a lighthearted jibe to tell the trolls to "mind their own business".