Ndaba now free to tell stories without any censorship
‘Erased’ uses risqué to tell tales of sex workers
Television and film writer Bongi Ndaba has broken the chains which she believes SA broadcasters had used to bind writers from using their creativity with freedom.
Ndaba, who has 22 years of experience as a writer and has worked for Generations, Isidingo, Generations: The Legacy, Ring of Lies, Greed and Desire, Gaz’lam and Uzalo among others, explains that what viewers watch every day is decided by the channels.
The Free State-born producer and actress said many screen writers were yearning for freedom to tell beautiful stories but were limited by channels and broadcasters.
“I have a lot of friends who are writers and they want to tell amazing black stories, but they can’t because they are not allowed to. There is a variety of stories to tell but there is no platform and that’s frustrating,” Ndaba said.
“But I am happy that black people are telling black stories though they are controlled in how they should tell them.”
It was for this reason that Ndaba could not say no when founder of Moja Love Aubrey Tau gave her a platform to exercise her creativity without limitations. Her latest project, Erased, a drama series she cocreated with Mpho Lengane, made its debut on the channel last week.
The first episode presented viewers with shockingly long sex scenes involving sex workers, strong language and plenty of nudity. Ndaba argues that the purpose is to educate the country about challenges faced by sex workers.
In Erased, Ndaba unpacks the story behind the story as she tells true stories of sex workers in the Vaal.
“I was happy when Aubrey gave me the freedom to do as I please. I wanted a story behind the people who decide or forced to become sex workers. Erased is based on true accounts of stories by different sex workers.
“The story developed when Mpho told me about her aunt who takes care of sex workers and teach them about sexually transmitted diseases.”
She adds: “We met her and she allowed us to speak to women about their lives and challenges. I decided to create a drama because I don’t think that there is a human being who wakes up and decide to be a prostitute. What I like about the story is that this is the honest portrayal of sex workers and their lives.”
As much as TV viewers bemoaned “pornographic” scenes, Ndaba says they didn’t want to tone it down because they did not want to tell a lie.
She says she wanted to take viewers to behind-the-scenes experiences of the sex workers, and the low-downs on the men who buy sex.
“We wanted to break the mould because when stories are told it’s always a black man buying sex or raping [the sex worker]. Our research showed we discovered that all races in SA are into buying sex.”
Ndaba says she felt compelled to tell the story because sex workers support families, take their children to tertiary institutions and yet were not respected.