Fired budding artists determined to raise money

A drawing of Patrice and Precious Motsepe may have led to Kgalalelo Gaitate, 21, of Randburg being fired as an intern but it might still help her realise her dream, says the young designer and artist.

Gaitate saw an opportunity to get the help of the Motsepes to help her study shoe design in Italy.

"I had been accepted to study overseas from June next year at a design school in Italy but I didn't have the money for the study fees," she said.

In order to raise money, she had been drawing portraits of prominent people such as Jacob Zuma and the Motsepes and trying to sell the portraits to them.

Last week she saw an advert for interns at the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Africa, and applied for a position.

"I tried catching the attention of Patrice and Precious Motsepe throughout the event but this didn't go down well with the event organisers who forbade me from going near them and warned me to stay away," she said.

Last Sunday her aunt, Lelo Kolisang, waited for the couple to arrive holding the portrait painted by Gaitate. Patrice spotted it and told Kolisang to show it to his wife.

According to Kolisang, Precious then asked her to find Gaitate and bring her to meet her, which she did. Gaitate said the fashion week organisers told her to leave immediately.

"Precious Motsepe gave me her personal assistant's e-mail address and I plan to schedule a meeting with her," she said.

But Grant Blackbeard, the general manager of AFI, said the only reason Gaitate was escorted away from Precious Motsepe was because she had to get back to her work.

"This is basically about a work ethic. She should have told us from the start that she was a budding artist," he added.