Nothing but the best
For Ga Re Dumele lead star Boikie Pholo, the best is yet to come as he teases a follow-up season.
Ga Re Dumele
Season 5 Saturdays (from 5 May) SABC2 (*192) 20:30
Boikie Pholo believes that sitcom Ga Re Dumele (2010- current) is a pioneer piece. “It was the first Setswana sitcom,” says the 69-year- old, who took on the role of loudmouth retired builder Mmusisi Ratau in the series. We caught up with the veteran actor in Groblersdal, Limpopo on the set of his Afrikaans movie Sonvanger to reminisce about his favourite sitcom. What makes you proud of Ga Re Dumele? I think that it’s the cornerstone of local sitcoms in South Africa. If I look at all the local comedy shows on TV, it seems like they took a page from Ga Re
Dumele and built a storyline around it. For that reason, I see a bit of myself in many of the characters onscreen. Ga Re Dumele has been around for five
seasons. Will there be a season 6? I really hope so. We have so many stories to tell. The best is yet to come for me and the series, but we will have to recast
Mary Makhato’s role as Esther. Mary sadly died in August last year after developing complications from a fall in July 2017. [Ga Re Dumele executive producer Martin Koboekae says that season 6 could likely happen as soon as they’ve recast Esther]. Are you anything like your character? In my younger years I was. Mmusisi is a talkative man. He likes the finer things in life like brandy, jazz music, and nice
clothes. I’ve outgrown all of those things from my past.
What are Mmusisi’s core values? Guys who want to marry his daughter Jane (Keitu Kasonkola) must pay lobola. He is strict on possible suitors paying this dowry. Even the title of the show means “we don’t believe our daughter should get married”, so if you want her, you must pay. And there is a good reason for this as Mmusisi and his wife Josephine (Meme Ditshego) wants their adult daughter to live with them forever. [Laughs] What advice would you give your character? Don’t be so strict! Live a little and allow your daughter to experience life at her own free will and be a bit nicer to Pastor Moruti Tlhong (Peter Mashigo) and his wife Esther. Do people recognise you on the street as
Mmusisi? I am so surprised at how many people come up to me and greet me as Mmusisi. They always tell me not to be so strict. What I do find strange, and it amazes me at the same time is that older people still recognise and call me Raitlhwana, the zombie caller from my first TV role in the series
Lesilo Rula (1979-1983) [season 1 is airing Fridays on SABC2 at 20:30, and season 1 and 2 are available on online streaming service Showmax).
Was Lesilo you breakout role? I never knew what fame was like before that, but when Lesilo started to air, everything was crazy. I remember in the early ’80s I went to visit my family in Klerksdorp and as I drove down the streets, hordes of people were following my car. It was like the president had just arrived for a visit. We didn’t have a wall around the house, only a fence, and the children trampled it just to get a glimpse of Raitlhwana. They always asked me to do my zombie call: Lesilo, Lesilo, rula mo baswing mme o tle kwan [Lesilo, wake up from the dead and come here] and when I did, they screamed and ran away.