As a radio and a television presenter, she talks for a living. And when it comes to sport, rugby in particular, this beaut can certainly talk the talk and walk the walk. But when Elma Smit is not on air, she plays with her four rescue cats, weeds the garden and then rewards her progress with a cold beer.
While she is perhaps best known as the first lady of rugby, Lady Rugga, Elma rose to fame as a newsreader, a radio DJ, a music compiler, a breakfast TV show host, a music TV presenter, a features writer for a newspaper, and a stylist. Quite the line-up. But, since becoming the first woman to report on the Rugby World Cup (for SuperSport in 2011), she’s established herself as one of the leading women in South African rugby. And early mornings, you’ll catch her as the witty sports anchor on Jacaranda FM’s Breakfast with Martin Bester.
Last year Elma also launched her book Become An Influencer, which is selling faster than Cheslin Kolbe can score a try. One thing is for sure, there is no stopping Elma. She’s just got the knack of turning her interests into opportunities. She shares some interesting titbits about herself you may not have known.
If she could do any other job, she would be a florist or run a nursery
I’m an avid gardener. There’s nothing like spending an afternoon gardening until the dirt is stuck in my hair, then celebrating my progress by sipping on a beer. My husband, Richard is passionate about manicuring the lawn, and I’m all about growing veggies and looking after my roses, clivias and orchids.
She loves playing golf quite often
I try to work in a round of golf with Richard every week and sometimes weekends as well, if I’m not working. Most recently I played golf at the beautiful Pecanwood golf course … Spent loads of quality time in all of the (many!) bunkers. Golf handicap? Golf is my handicap, I’m terrible, truly.
She is very much looking forward to the British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa in July.
Can. Not. Wait. But … being a huge sports fan, I love watching cricket, golf, netball and tennis. At the moment I’m working on a series about competitive ice skating like figure skating, and synchronised and speed skating, which has opened a whole new world of winter sports for me.
Sports commentators Elma looks up to are the three wise men of cricket – Harsha Bogle (India), Ian Smith (New Zealand) and Ian Bishop (Trinidad).
They captivate your imagination as a viewer and, as colleagues, they are truly humble, helpful, exemplary people. I learnt a great deal from them about the craft of broadcasting sport, but also about how the truly great ones are never divas.
The biggest highlight of her career was covering the Rugby World Cup and final in Japan in 2019.
When the Springboks won it was very special because I had been following many of the players’ careers closely from when they were just juniors. I have, over the years, interviewed many of them in a variety of different settings and at different stages of their development. To know what it meant to them, but also people back home and to be there in person was something I’ll treasure forever.
She and her husband have four rescue cats
Kermit is 12 years old and likes to play when his back pain meds kick in but spends most of his day sitting in a sunny spot. Frank is a very lively and quirky three-year-old that suffers from anxiety (long story). He loves cuddling with Tina, his girlfriend. Tina Purrner is named after the singer because she is a big ball of beautiful long hair and an absolute diva. She is only interested in following Frank around and curling up with him. Shirley is fearless, small and a little squint, and wants all the attention she can get. She loves to climb into our guests’ cars.
Being an influencer herself, Elma shared the ins and outs of it in her book, Become an influencer
I was picked by two global governing bodies as the face of their World Cup (ICC and World Rugby) content campaigns, in the space of only six months. I generated more revenue from influencer work in that same period than from anything else. In Become An Influencer, I spill the beans on how to build a loyal audience, how to charge for paid campaigns, and how to avoid running into a social media meltdown. I interviewed established mainstream showbiz names like Maps Maponyane and Liesl Laurie, people like Rachel Kolisi who are often in hot water for their use of social media, and then creators who launched their business from their childhood bedroom – people like Nadia Jaftha, Katinka die Kat and TikTok superstar Wian Magic (who has a whopping 11 million fans!).
Become An Influencer (also Word ‘n Influencer in Afrikaans), R219 from Takealot.com or from R150, linktr.ee/elmasmit
Her five top become-an-influencer tips:
- Don’t wait for someone to come pluck you from obscurity and identify what gift you have to share with the world. Do the work, pick yourself. You need to decide that you have a worthy contribution to make before you can make it.
- As I explain in my book, influencers have been around for ages. They created social media, not the other way around. If you’ve been consuming media (like radio, TV and print publications) all of your life, you probably already have the tools to do this, you just don’t know it yet.
- Influencers don’t have to be young, gorgeous and share every inch of their lives. There’s a lot more space for you if you don’t fit that bill because there are huge gaps in other audience segments where people look for content they can identify with. Only a very narrow slice of the normal population really identify (and are truly influenced by) waif-thin models and naturally beautiful actresses.
- Many influencers build amazing content communities around interests like keto/Banting/ whatever recipes, gaming reviews or how to care for house plants – to name just a few. Whatever interest already takes up most of your spare time is probably the thing you’d be best at turning into an influencer business.
- Make content that people find useful and they’ll keep coming back. Build a loyal audience and you’ll have a platform brands want to partner with. Once brands offer you return business (because your campaigns are delivering on the goals set for them) you’re a professional influencer.
Details: Follow her on Twitter, @elmakapelma or Instagram, @elmakapelma.
* Text: RIALIEN FURSTENBERG. Photographer: KEVIN MARK PASS.
