What’s the score?
New SABC telenovela Keeping Score is blowing the whistle on the darker side of the sports industry.
Mmamosa is on a revenge mission and she’s got her boxer ex in her sights. Mondays & Tuesdays SABC2 (*192) 21:30
Nothing’s off limits from Monday 17 October in new boxing-themed telenovela Keeping Score (2016). Expect action, adrenaline, passion, rage, deceit, revenge and drama in the show’s 156 half-hour episodes, hints scriptwriter Thandi Brewer. She adds that “we’re aiming to make it the audience’s weekly fix by offering spellbinding characters”. Keeping Score, which airs Mondays and Tuesdays, is looking into the tainted sports industry and how a family is affected by drama, both in and out the boxing ring.
Thandi reveals that her telenovela was originally pitched to the SABC in 2014 but it wasn’t until this year that the broadcaster accepted the show for production. Associate producer Thulani Ngcwabe says that “Keeping Score looks very different from what is on TV. It is Thandi’s concept that she developed for years and approached the SABC about introducing younger generations to sport and to reintroduce sporting codes that we remember only at the Olympics. The actors and crew are enthusiastic!” So who are the “ridiculously hot young leads” that Thandi’s excited about?
THE CONTENDERS
Mmamosa (Sonia Mbele) fell for boxer Justice (Saint Seseli), who left her as a pregnant teen. She now has sons Tladi and Lehasa (Solomon Sebothma and Siyabonga Sepotokele) and she wants revenge on Justice. Justice is back home to open the All African Sports Academy. He has two girls, Ashanti and Botho (Shalima Mkongo and Moliehli Makobane). Tladi is fiercely protective of his family and is a boxer, despite his dislike for conflict. He doesn’t know who his biological father is – yet! Lehasa is studying to be a lawyer but he’s still struggling and learning how to stay calm and keep levelheaded. He’s going to be part of his mom’s plans to ruin Justice Ashanti is a spoilt-brat wild- child who’s the spitting image of her late mom Anna. Justice favours Ashanti because she has a feisty personality, just like him. Botho is everything that Justice disapproves of: non-sporty, bookish, insecure and awkward.