Panic stations
The Lategans face allegations of racism but worse is coming…
Isidingo Weekdays SABC3 (*193) 19:00
There’s nothing quiet or ordinary about the mining town of Horizon Deep and Isidingo has continued to introduce real-world matters into its storylines since 1998. September will be a rough month for the Lategan family when a racism scandal threatens their foundations, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg, warns headwriter David Gordon. “The community is still reeling from traumatic event after traumatic event, nearly splitting the town along all sorts of lines – race, class, age, sex.” Less than a month after Detective Eddie (Paul Buckby) was killed in July when the police station was blown up, the miners invaded Hendrik’s (Gerard Rudolf) home in late August demanding answers about their jobs and in the chaos, his sister-in-law Wendy (Michelle Belling) was attacked. Hendrik’s wife Lalage (Elma Postma) has undiagnosed Post Traumatic Stress and because it’s untreated, things get out of hand on Monday 3 September.
YOU vs ME
David explains that with the invasion fresh on her mind, along with the miners taking hostages at Sibeko Gold, Lalage does what a certain subset of white South African tend to do: “She imagines fleeing the country with her family. This focus on her family as the victims doesn’t sit well with Morongwa (Soso Runkqu) and she brands it ‘let’s focus on the Lategans and ignore the miners’ troubles’.” Word spreads on Tuesday 4 September and that stresses Lalage more, which results in her lashing out at Hendrik on Thursday 6 September “for his perceived lack of supporting her efforts to keep their family together,” adds David.
DAMAGED GOODS
Lalage’s panicking isolates her by Tuesday 11 September and one by one, her family refuse to share her dream. “It turns out they can keep themselves together pretty well,” says Isidingo’s headwriter. “This will have long-term consequences for them, reaching into 2019. Hendrik continuing his support of the miners causes her more stress but it shows how integrated he is in Horizon Deep, as are their children.” But while David says that the bigger picture is about togetherness and tolerance, what will Lalage think when she realises the true extent of the damages caused by her actions?