“Loony” Lindiwe
The tables turn on Lindiwe Xulu as detective Mondli has her locked up in a mental institution.
Disgraced Lindiwe Xulu (Dawn Thandeka King) is preparing to flee KwaMashu on Wednesday 1 February when Zandile Mdletshe (Leleti Khumalo) runs her down in a fit of rage. And that’s just the start of how Lindiwe will pay for her crimes. One of the most terrible things she did in the process of covering up her role in the death of Zandile’s son Nkosinathi (Sipho Mhlongo) in February 2016 was to frame her own sister Jabulile’s (Nompumelelo Ndlovu) son Bandile (Ayanda Luthuli) for the crime in March 2016. And when Jabulile started trying to prove Bandile’s innocence, Lindiwe had her locked away in a psychiatric institution in August 2016. Now the ruthless Mrs Xulu is going to find out exactly what that’s like…
AMNESIA? YOU MUST BE CRAZY
On Wednesday 8 February, when Lindiwe comes round in hospital after being mowed down by Zandile, she’s already plotting to turn the situation to her advantage. “She knows that if she wakes up and admits to remembering anything, she will go to jail,” explains Dawn. “When the accident happened, everybody was aware that her son Mxolisi (Nay Maps) and Lindiwe were responsible for Nkosinathi’s death. So she quickly comes up with the amnesia story.” But fate has a nasty twist for Lindiwe because on Thursday 9 February officer Mondli (Thembinkosi Thwala) declares that since Lindiwe obviously isn’t in her right mind, the proper place for her to await trial is in the Sunnyhill Mental Institution. “I don’t think she had prepared herself for that. She thought they were going to let her go home,” Dawn reveals.
SEE HOW YOU LIKE IT!
On Friday 10 February, Lindiwe begins to realise exactly what she did to Jabulile when she took away any chance of people taking her seriously. “She realises how much trauma her sister had to go through when you are sane but locked up with people who are insane and you are treated as if you are not well mentally. Lindiwe has no control over where she is. Every person who comes to visit her, she tries to get them to get her out, but all of them tell her that she needs to stay in hospital because she needs treatment and she needs to get better. The more she tells them that she’s sane, the more they think that she’s actually not sane.”
RUDE AWAKENING
Nothing in Lindiwe’s life has prepared her for the pain and disempowerment that she’s about to experience. “Both on the inside and the outside, she is shaken,” says Dawn. “She is treated in the way that she has been treating other people – nobody listens to what she’s saying or what she wants, all they want is for her to follow the rules. She gets broken, emotionally and mentally. She takes a knock.”
And when she wakes up to find roommate Patjutju (Lindiwe Ndlovu – Dawn’s Lockdown co-star in 2017) staring at her on Tuesday 14 February, it’s a whole new level of hell. “I think anyone would freak out,” says Dawn. “Patjutju is a lunatic. Lindiwe feels endangered by being in the same room as her. It interferes with her sanity and she ends up thinking that making friends with Patjutju will make it easier to be in the institution. But it actually makes it even more difficult.”