There were three rules growing up as girls in the Mabuse household – be kind, be ambitious and never let someone tell you that you can’t be whatever you want to be.
It certainly goes to explain former Strictly star Oti's unstoppable drive. And it explains why she has more jobs even than TV's inescapable Bradley Walsh.
Having quit Strictly at the end of December, 31-year-old Oti went straight to join the Dancing On Ice panel, is now hosting primetime Saturday dating show Romeo and Duet, has her own BBC podcast, and is currently on her first UK-wide solo dance tour, I Am Here.
When she does take a "day off," it's to film the forthcoming series of The Masked Dancer and run her dance school with husband Marius Iepure, 39.
Alongside her determination is a hugely supportive side. Both traits can be traced back to those early days.
Her dad Peter was a lawyer fighting for those who couldn't afford representation. Her mum Dudu was a teacher. They were adamant their daughters shouldn't let people's attitudes to race, gender or anything else hold them back.
It's the same message Oti passes on to her female fans. "I'm a massive girl power kind of girl," Oti says smiling in an interview for the new Pride of Britain podcast, adding: "Not that I hate men!"
She continues: "So many girls have written to me saying they wanted to stop ballet because their bodies weren’t matching to what a ballerina's is.
"I tell them 'Don’t give up on your dream because of what you look like or something you can't control'. As women, we really, really need to remind each other of that. We should not be pitted against one another, but should be supportive."
Dancing On Ice presenter Holly Willoughby also shares the belief. "I have this insane love for Holly," says Oti. "She's kind and fun and real.
"We always tell each other how incredible we are and that we're doing an amazing job, and it really, really helps.
"I have nieces and I want them to feel like they are enough... And I have sisters and I want them to feel like they’re enough and can just do anything."
It's the positive attitude that has made her - and older sister, Strictly judge Motsi, 41 - so popular. Oti is grateful about how things are going after Strictly.
"I've left the biggest show and now I've got three shows! It's been incredible," she says on the audio and video podcast. "As a dancer, and as a South African woman, I feel like, 'Wow, what a country to live in'."
Her schedule sounds exhausting. "I'm OK," she laughs. "I'm taking my vitamins ... I'm loving life. My legs, though... my legs are definitely tired."
She has thrown herself into her solo tour. It opened in Cardiff, the same weekend as the Strictly: The Professionals tour. There was no rivalry: she took her cast to watch it, and her former co-stars are set to return the favour.
"When I started the tour, I was very nervous," she says. "But then you see the audience ... For so long, people always thought that women don't actually sell well, especially tours.
"To be able to do it, I feel so unbelievably grateful. I love, love, love it."
She is equally thrilled about hosting ITV dating show Romeo and Duet, a Blind Date-esque concept but with singing instead of questions.
From the matches so far, she probably won't be buying a hat anytime soon but at least she has been struck by Cupid's arrow.
"I've presented for a while, but to host my own show? That was one of those moments where you just go, 'Oh my goodness, I can’t believe God has allowed these things to happen to me'.
"I'd go home tired but happy I'm doing the one thing that I've fallen madly in love with."
Oti was born in 1990 in the Apartheid era. She grew up in Mabopane, a township 45 minutes from Pretoria, alongside Motsi and their sister Phemelo, now 35. The trio have been seen together on Celebrity Gogglebox.
By her early 20s, Oti was an eight-time South African Latin ballroom dancing champ, and after getting a degree in civil engineering, followed sister Motsi to Germany where she appeared on its version of Strictly.
Oti then met German dance partner (and now husband of eight years) Marius and moved to the UK, joining Strictly in 2015. She came second with Danny Mac in 2016, and won in 2019 with Kelvin Fletcher and again in 2020 with Bill Bailey.
Oti's desire to live abroad is also because of her parents, who still live in South Africa.
She says: "Growing up, we understood where we stood. Racism in South Africa was not hidden. And it wasn't subtle. Before 1994, you couldn’t really travel anywhere as freely as you wanted to.
"I guess that's why Motsi and I now live overseas, because our dad always said, 'I couldn't even leave this country. If you did it was because you're an exile. So travel, please, go see the world'."
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Their mum Dudu made sure the girls had the dance opportunities she never had – black people weren't even allowed on the same dancefloor as their white peers when she was a teen.
So when Dudu had her own young daughters and saw there was still no one teaching black children ballroom in their area, she opened a dance class at the school where she worked and took on extra jobs to pay for instructors.
"My mum was fighting and sacrificing for all of us," says Oti. "If someone told her 'no', she was like, 'I don’t understand no'. She'd also say 'As girls, especially, it's really important you are driven and ambitious. You can't just stick to one thing'."
It's why Oti has a multi-faceted career as a dancer, teacher, presenter and Dancing On Ice judge.
Her dad meanwhile reminded her to "be humble, be grateful and be kind" - especially to fans.
"I am so lucky that those are my parents," smiles Oti. By the time she was at secondary school the feeling in South Africa was about "forgiveness" and "unity", but not forgetting.
"We all learn from the past. If you don’t know where you come from, you don't know what you're fighting for or who you're inspiring," she says.
But despite the early hardships in South Africa, Oti loves her homeland. "We're from the deep, deep, deep Africa, like we have no roads where we come from," she says.
"And I love it. I could simply go back to South Africa and live in the middle of nowhere with nothing and it would be OK." With all the offers flying in, she won’t be waltzing off anywhere, anytime soon hopefully.
For tickets for the I Am Here tour visit www.otimabuse.com.
Pride of Britain podcast Extraordinary People is available weekly on the Global network, Apple and Spotify.
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