MOLOI S LIFE OF ZOL ’ AND DRINK
Actress Meryl Streep once said: Acting is not about “being someone different. It’s finding the similarity in what is apparently different, then finding myself in there.”
This statement might ring true for South African actor Patrick Ndlovu, best known as infamous funeral parlour business kingpin Sizwe Moloi in the SABC1 drama series Zone 14.
If you’ve ever caught the programme you’ll know that Moloi is ruthless
– no one who dares to double cross him lives to tell the tale. A typical bad ass! Ndlovu plays this villain with flair. He also treats this character with nothing but respect.
After all, he’s sometimes so consumed in this role that following a heated scene, perhaps with his prime enemy Tiger Sibiya, he convulses with anger and has to calm himself down.
This he remedies by sitting under a tree in solitude or in his car, where he plays some of his favourite jazz tunes.
“The first thing I do when I arrive in the morning is to eat my breakfast. I then change into my costume and make up; as soon as I turn around and look at the mirror in my black suit, I’m gone... and when I walk into the mortuary I don’t want to be disturbed for about five minutes.
“I go in there, stand in front of my desk, close my eyes and it comes.”
He wears that Ntate Moloi expression as he explains this intense process. In fact, earlier at the restaurant, where I found him waiting for me, one could have imagined him as the real Moloi
– he looked serious and ready for an altercation.
But chatting to him yields quite the opposite.
I can hardly hold back bursts of laughter, though he does warn that he’s quite capable of throwing a fit. Ndlovu has held his own for more than 30 years in the industry.
Some of his earlier roles include Senzangakhona’s advisor in the 1986 series Shaka Zulu, directed by his mentor, the late William Faure, whom he holds in high regard.
Faure was, Ndlovu says, one of the best directors we’ve ever had in this country.
He also played the strict school principal in SABC1’s Yizo Yizo, among many other roles.
“I can’t say where it [acting] came from but when it came to me, it came and stayed inside me.
“Every time I grab a script and open it I go deep.”
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He tells me about lengthy hours spent in solitude memorising lines and getting into his character’s
“mind”.
He’s adamant that a great actor comes from discipline and education, something he feels is lacking with many up-and-coming actors who seek the fame and the riches before excellence.
“People come; they don’t even know what to do when the director says freeze! Motho a be a jika (they look around) and they ask hau redirile eng? (What have we done?) No, they said freeze!” He laughs hysterically. Listening to Ndlovu speak of his dedication and discipline, it might be hard to believe that the no-nonsense actor had a bad boy streak growing up, which included smoking weed, drinking a whole bottle of brandy by himself and being the drummer for a jazz band, The Jazz Prophets.
“We were in all these festivals, playing at White City Jabavu Stadium, Orlando Stadium; people thought that’s what I was good at. And I should stay a drummer forever.
“But I left because we were smoking dagga and my father also wanted me to stop because I’d come home ke le deurmekaar, take them [drums] out of the car and even leave them in the kitchen because ek is dronk, go to the bedroom and sleep in my clothes. “I said ‘ no more’. I just stopped!” And as they say, the rest is history. It’s been 15 years without a smoke or drink.
But he says those years were delightful and every now and then when the urge to play comes, he treats himself to a jam session at a local club.