Pastor sex pest
“Wolf in sheep’s clothing” Pastor Sipho prepares to prey on his unsuspecting flock.
In December last year, kaMadonsela’s (Fundiswa Zwane) ex-boyfriend Sipho (Thabo Mnguni) swept into Umbumbulu to help mediate a rift in the church between Khanyo (Nqobile Ndlovu) and her pastor father Phakade (Sandile Dlamini). By taking Khanyo’s side, he helped her gain control of the church, so Khanyo has nothing but trust when Sipho returns in February. Sadly for her, he is set to use that against her as he plots to take over the church like a fox in a hen house, licking his lips over the pretty “chicks” in the choir. “She believes in Sipho and he is going to use that to break down this girl to do whatever he wants to her. She thinks that he can help her, but he will tell her that she isn’t ready to be a pastor. It will be easy to break her,” says Thabo.
DEADLY SINS
Once Sipho has crushed Khanyo’s confidence, it will be nothing for him to kick her out of the nest and take over the choir himself. And Thabo points out two red flags to watch for in his character’s behaviour: “Whenever he sees a woman, he sees an object. He sees something that he can do whatever he wants with it. The other thing about Sipho is that he acts like nobody is better than him,” he reveals. Thabo had plenty of real-life examples to inspire Sipho’s dirty work. “Being ordained as a pastor allows Sipho to get power through other people. Sjoe, there’s this guy who is a big pastor on TV. To see someone like him reminds me that we are a society falling for these people. There are pastors who are spraying people with Doom. How can you treat people like that?” he asks.
LOVE TO HATE
Sipho is the kind of guy viewers love to hate and Thabo is bracing himself for the backlash. “Let me be honest, I am nervous. It’s not the first time that I’ve played a dodgy character. I played Khuboni the hitman in Generations (1994- current) in 2011 and I killed a famous character who was well-liked. People took offense at that. I even got calls from people who wanted to kill me! They thought it was real. It will get to a point when they start to hate you and call you all sorts of things. But you know if people hate you that you have done the right thing,” says Thabo with a hint of amusement.