Crime family
Over Njeza’s dead body will his siblings starve on the street and not go to school.
Njeza (Nkanyiso Makhanya) is a free man and the ex- con would like it to stay that way after years behind bars. But his new boss MaNgcobo (Dawn Thandeka King) likes to live dangerously and this fortnight it isn’t just a prison cell looming, it’s the terror of MaNgcobo’s husband Nkunzi’s (Masoja Msiza) wrath when she sends Njeza to snatch something out of Nkunzi’s car in the police impound. “Njeza knows Nkunzi. He’s heard stories about the things that he has done. And just going to the police station… he still has to go sign his parole papers every month and every time he walks back into the police station, it takes him back to being arrested for killing his father years earlier offscreen. He gets scared but MaNgcobo reassures him that everything’s been sorted, he just needs to go and do his job,” says Nkanyiso. Her words aren’t the only things making Njeza brave – he would do anything to protect and provide for his orphaned siblings. He killed their abusive father for them. Now he will live for them.
A LIFE OF CRIME
“He knew that having a criminal record is going to be very hard for him to find a proper job to provide for his family. He doesn’t want his brother and his sister to suffer while he is still alive. He wants to get his family through school so that they can have a better future. MaNgcobo gave Njeza an offer, ‘I know that your siblings don’t have a place to stay. I will give you this house if you do my dirty work for me,’” explains Nkanyiso. And aside from the roof over his head, Njeza will also get to step into his dream a career somewhat by getting involved in the carjacking syndicate. “He wanted to be a mechanic. His dad taught him to work with cars and how the parts work when he was young, so that is what he wanted to. Now he is using those skills that he was taught by his dad in crime,” says the actor.
THE REAL LOVE
While Njeza is sacrificing for his family, his younger sister Nonka (Thuthuka Mthembu) will be doing her part too by trying to help him shake the shadow of those prison bars and family tragedy. “She understands what Njeza did. He is still angry and still bitter, but this anger and bitterness that he has is making him become like his father. Nonka tries to pull him away from that. Njeza can’t see that she is trying to get him out of that cycle, so they fight, but they love each other,” says Nkanyiso.