Is’thunzi

Season 1 Mzansi Magic (*161) 20:00 Drama Episode 4 Londi is so broke that she needs Winnie to pay back all her airtime. NB! See more on p34.

How did the idea for the show come about? I’d just been made sheriff a couple of months before and I was trying to get undercover cops into the jail to do some investigating. I struggled to even get officers from out of the area who wouldn’t be recognised by inmates, so instead we chose volunteers who went in pretending to be convicts What was the criteria for the undercover inmates? I wanted passionate people. It was easy to pick them as they either wanted to be in law enforcement, in corrections, they’d been there before, they had family members in prison or they’d studied criminal justice. Tell us about season 2’s “inmates”. They are all interesting individuals and that is how we picked them – we wanted a diverse look from multiple angles. I also didn’t want people who were going to sugarcoat things and tell me what I wanted to hear. We need to hear the truth and we’re getting that now. What surprised you about season 2? The bad inmate behaviour. It reaches a new level compared to season 1. And how do you think the show has been received by viewers? It’s been super. I’ve had to take the good with the bad at the facility; it’s tough sometimes. When you’re hearing the things that you need to do to improve, it’s a great learning process and I’d do it all over again.