Stuck in a rut
Life will find a way in season 2 of Ingozi – but it will be tough.
Ingozi Season 2 Sundays (from 18 February) SABC1 (*191) 20:00
Ingozi (2017- current) left viewers wondering what would happen to lead characters Zikhona (Lunathi Mampofu) and Dali (Senzokuhle Radebe) after the season 1 drunk driving crash in May 2017. It’s been a year wait for fans, but for the show and its characters, it’s almost the next day as the families pick up literal and figurative pieces of their lives. “This is going to be a heavy ride,” warns Senzo. “Dali is this young man who is looking ahead at nothing now. His future is in a jail cell. He is going to be locked up for the next 15 years. It’s for his two crimes: driving while drunk and then making it a hit-and-run by trying to flee the scene of the crime.”
But that’s the selfish way of thinking, says Lunathi. “Dali is not the only person who has suffered. He can walk. Zikhona was a top varsity student and she had a bright future ahead of her. That is gone now.” The actress adds that Zikhona being unable to walk is “just as bad as Dali’s jail cell. Her life has come to a crashing stop. This is a challenge for her, to get through it.”
PICKING UP PIECES
Senzo and Lunathi know where their characters will end the season, but it’s the journey that is going to have fans in tears of joy, sorrow, sadness and frustration at times. “Will she be able to forgive Dali for driving drunk and destroying her life?” asks Lunathi. “There will be a backand-forth shift with Zikhona’s mindset. She’s tough and she is a fighter and she’s got this amazing support structure, but she can’t walk. She can’t get up to get a glass of water. She can’t walk around a shop. That is going to weigh her down twofold – physically and mentally.”
And it’s the same for Dali, says Senzo. “He is in jail – he’s trapped in this room but his mind is going a million miles an hour too. His dad was going to be the mayor. That is off the cards now. His family have to live with everyone looking down at them for his actions. He can’t change that when we start the season. But he may find enlightenment. I know it’s cheesy to say, but he might be able to save himself though his sentence.”