“IT’S not only how you start but how you finish that counts.”
That was how C.S.A.’s Founder, Francine Le Chat – who sadly passed in Los Angeles on July 4 after a short illness – viewed both work and life in its broadest sense. And she made good by her dictum.
A pioneering visionary in the PR and events industries and in philanthropy, the global outpouring of love and tributes to Fran upon her passing is testimony to the towering presence and larger-than-life legacy she left behind.
Starting her career as a woman in a man’s world, Frannie, as she was affectionately known, turned the marketing industry inside out when she conceived and produced the first Mr South Africa event in the early 1990s.
Co-founding Celebrity Services Africa (C.S.A.) in 1994 with her husband, Marc, Fran was among the first to bring international celebrities to post-apartheid South Africa, including Roya Megnot from Loving for M-NET’s Red Nose Day, Naomi Campbell (Miss World 1995), and Djimon Honsou and Kimora Lee Simmons for the Mandela Legacy Canvas Event in Cape Town (2011).
To all who knew or met Fran, she was recognised as vibrant, creative, and fiercely loyal, yet powerfully compassionate. Spirit-filled, she always thought of others first and wove this philosophy into her work, often fighting against social ills in the process.
She was one of the first to bring racially mixed shows to Johannesburg’s northern suburbs in the late 1980s, and created events that touched the hearts of children – from the massive Children’s Day events at Zoo Lake (which she dubbed “The Promised Land”) for the Office of the Presidency, to projects for the Gauteng Department of Social Welfare. At one such event, a group of township teens imprisoned for life hugged Fran after she had selflessly sourced and given them Kaizer Chiefs kits. In a way, she changed their lives.
There are too many stories to capture in one feature on Fran’s extraordinary life, although walking through Alexandra, Joburg, followed by children as she helped them build a crèche, simply has to be mentioned.
Having introduced Naomi Campbell to Nelson Mandela in 1995, Fran became one of Madiba’s cheerleaders, sourcing money from the rich to give to the poor as well as for his Foundation. When Planet Hollywood Cape Town, one of C.S.A.’s clients, suffered a tragic bombing, Mandela was one of the first to come down to be with Fran at the site.
Motivated by the idea that “impossible people make the impossible possible,” Fran inspired the TV music show Castle Loud (produced by C.S.A. with Urban Brew Studios), which launched the careers of Zola, Danny K, and others. After relocating to Cape Town in the early 2000s, she produced some of the city’s biggest productions, from the Festive Lights Events to the FIFA Fan Walk, where she insisted that local vendors be included so everyone could share in the moment.
With an eye for talent, Fran helped launch the careers of many of today’s best-known stars, including Unathi Nkayi (“she’s fresh & unique – I love her,” Fran said after they first met).
In later years, Fran produced and directed the Mandela Legacy Event in 2011, raising R3 million for the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Mayor’s Charities, and led the Madiba Memorial Events in 2013. Her PR clients, such as Camelot Spa, became household names.
Her stature as a doyen of public relations in South Africa – built on more than 30 years in communications – came from her integrity, which made her a beacon in an industry often polluted by spin.
Fran had the rare gift of making people feel like the only person in the room, showering those around her with love and inspiration. She dreamed big, even opening a Los Angeles office to build a cultural bridge between continents, and was a devoted matriarch who believed that family – Marc, Jaren, Brannon, Davin, and Emmanuelle – was everything.
Francine Le Chat is a woman upon whose shoulders many other women stand today.
And as for the men she helped raise, they include the directors of C.S.A., who will honour her legacy by continuing – as a family and as a company – to dream big and live with integrity, love, and light – Just as Frannie did.
In loving memory (1955 – 2017)