Evita Bezuidenhout, still regarded as the most famous white woman in South Africa, was born Evangelie Poggenpoel of humble Boer origins in the dusty Orange Free State town of Bethlehem on 28th September 1935. Illegitimate, imaginative, pretty and ambitious, she dreamt of Hollywood fame and fortune, tasting stardom in such 50s Afrikaner film classics as 'Boggel en die Akkedis' (Hunchback and the Lizard), 'Meisie van my Drome' (Girl of my Dreams) and 'Duiwelsvallei' (Devil's Valley). She married into the political Bezuidenhout Dynasty and became the demure wife of NP Member of Parliament Dr J.J. De V. Bezuidenhout and the proud mother of de Kock, Izan and Billie-Jeanne.

Power became her addiction. She wielded it in the boardroom, the kitchen and round the dinnertable, becoming confidante to the flawed gods on the Boer Olympus and so shaping the course of history with her close and often unbeliveable relationships with the grim-faced leaders of the day: Dr H. F. Verwoerd, B. J. Vorster, P.W. Botha and F.W. de Klerk. Hand in hand with the glamourous Evita of Pretoria was the Tallyrand of Africa, Pik Botha, her ageing Romeo and constant friend, while watching her from afar as she watched him, Nelson R. Mandela, alive today thanks to her timely interventions.

Her ten years as the South African Ambassador in the Independent black Homeland Republic of Bapetikosweti  left an indelible mark on the blueprint of change, and today her recipe for bobotie is internationally regarded as the basis for reconciliation. 'Sit down, eat and talk' has been her slogan and troublespots in the world owe their future to her kitchen skills. As the former barefoot-meisie from Bethlehem majestically sailed into the stormy seas of her marriage and maturity, dazzling friend and foe alike with her Calvinist authority and dreaded lack of irony, like  any other educated brainwashed white South African, she constantly passed by the terrible aftermath of the apartheid system she helped to spawn, and having seen, looked away at her smiling reflection in the family silver. Evita Bezuidenhout was presented with the Living Legacy Award 2000 in San Diego 2001. This same award had in the past been given to legends that included Hillary Roddam Clinton, Bette Davis, Princess Diana and Margaret Thatcher.

Evita Bezuidenhout today shares her time between the family home in Laagerfontein where her husband Oom Hasie lives, and the West Coast village of Darling where her mother Ouma Ossewania Kakebenia Poggenpoel resides. Now in her 70's, this glamorous eternal flame of boere chutzpah holds court at the former Darling Station, now famous as 'Evita se Perron',
where she entertains and dazzles a visiting world in awe, while also bravely following in the slipstream of Jocob Zuma's Presidential jet(s) to make sure that 'kos' is on his 'tafel'. As one of the few Afrikaner icons who did not lose their heads on the tumbrils of democracy, Gogo Evita is grandmother to her three black treasures: Winnie-Jeanne, Nelson-Ignatius and La Toya-Ossewania. She has embraced the new democracy with an alarming passion, underlining her commitment to a non-racial future by her support that cuts across racial lines.

On 1 April 2012 she joined the African National Congress in an attempt to help them on their long and rocky road to a corrupt-free fruture. Her own political team also known as Evita’s People’s Party (www.epp.org.za) remains in waiting to deliver voter education for the next election. Evita's optimism is simple: 'You don't need a crystal ball to see where we are going. The future of South Africa is certain; it is just the past that is unpredictable.'

So I created a character in my column out of whose mouth these rumours / facts dripped like warm honey. She was the wife of a Nationalist NW, someone on the fringes of power but elbow-deep in the catering, so she knew all the ins and outs. For 3 years she appeared about once a month, informing the nation of the stench under the cloak of respectability and no-one stopped her (me). Someone even gave her a name: "The Evita of Pretoria".

When I started my one-man show "Adapt or Dye" in April 1982, I gave this creature a physical reality - eyelashes, high heels and handbag - and she has never looked back! Right from the start "Tannie Evita" stepped out of the chorus line and took off into folklore, leaving behind the many other characters I did in my shows.

The public wanted more of her all the time, so I created more around her - her husband Hasie and her three children. I played them all on stage in "Farce about Uys" and on film in "Skating on thin Uys".

The absurdity of the homeland system cried out for attention and so she became its most famous ambassador. Even during 2 years when I stopped performing her - fearing she would swamp me with her forcefulness - the public didn't notice. Mrs Evita Bezuidenhout was alive and living among them, in spite of me!

I introduced her to audiences in Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Holland, Germany and Scandinavia. She became as confident on foreign soil as she was in her own backyard. People wrote to her, promising to support her in her legal efforts to control that "third-rate satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys" who was so cruelly making fun of her.

Politicians wrote too. Minister Pik Botha faxed her, Archbishop Desmond Tutu kissed her on the cheek and danced the toyi-toyi with her in his garden. Designers designed for her. I dieted because of her.

While other honourees received the award for great things, Ons Tannie received hers for the laughter and positive energy that her presence evokes. Mother Theresa and Hilary Clinton are past honourees of this award.