Cover Story – Zandile Msutwana Ready To Come Out Of Her Shell
Hailed as one of South Africa’s greatest acting talents, The Queen’s ZANDILE MSUTWANA opens up about embracing life and media attention by her own rules, as well as putting her passions back on the agenda
Zandile Msutwana has finally made a conscious decision to open up a little bit more, but carefully so — and it’s evident in the effort she’s been making to attend red carpet events and, now, gracing her first-ever cover. The latter, in all honesty, is somewhat of an embarrassment, considering the brilliance she has brought to every role she’s portrayed in the past fifteen years as an actress. Let me digress: Who can ever forget how she stole the show as Akua Yenana on SABC 1’s Society — a drama series that was way ahead of its time and lauded for leaving viewers with heartfelt lasting thoughts for its taboobusting storyline.
ON BEING MEDIA-SHY
Anyway, Zandile is not one for grandstanding. So, a compliment about how she should at least be on her tenth cover, is met with a cordial, “For the longest time, I was all about my work and didn’t get how a media interview and attending events would book me a job! I was more about auditions, meeting producers and putting all my focus on anything work-related,” she says.
Never one to subscribe to the notion of using media presence and publicity to propel her career forward, the King William’s Town-born actress explains that it’s difficult to tap into the media space when you don’t know who you are and what you’re about. She then delves into an incident that made her weary of being portrayed falsely. That was when she had just made her TV debut on Society and there was much hype around the show, and her, as the lead. “I had all this success and had no man, which wasn’t an issue for me. I remember somebody trying to push me to the level of ‘you could easily be the same as that celeb’. And I refused to be compared to anyone else because I couldn’t relate to it. I just couldn’t bring myself to be somebody I wasn’t in the media. I don’t know, and have never known, how not to be genuine,” she explains rather acutely. She continues: “I like observing people. Not because I want to criticise others, but more because I’m watching to learn and gauge whether I’m comfortable with what I see. I want to define myself as the type of artist I’d be comfortable being known as. My biggest Aha! moment has been that I don’t have to be everything that everybody is. Besides, I’ve never had ambitions of being an IT girl. ”
During the time when she was sceptical of what the media could potentially do for her public profile, she decided to turn the focus on first building herself inward — a process she describes as a ‘sense of becoming’. Zandile believes that, had she exposed herself to a lot of publicity earlier in her career, it would have been confusing to those who have an interest in her life, because she would say one thing in this interview, and utter something completely different in another. “I believe I’m now smart enough to handle all the publicity directed at me,” she says. She understands that she will never have control over what’s said about her, the actress adds, but luckily there’s social media to rectify anything said that’s out of line.
So, how exactly does she plan to still protect herself now that she’s decided to leave her shell? “I will still question if there’s any relevance in me attending certain events. If it isn’t conducive to my plans, my future and me, then I have no business accepting the invitation. But if it speaks to who I am, where I’m at or where I want to be, then I will definitely show up. I’ll be forty soon and ndimdala to be seen just nje. I don’t want to be out there for the sake of being seen,” she states quite forcefully.
Zandile also uses this opportunity to explain why she accepted and was excited about the TRUE LOVE cover opportunity. “You guys were not seeking to reintroduce Zandile Msutwana, and that’s why this interview was important to me,” she says. There’s been confusion, it seems. Just because Zandile hasn’t been dancing too close to the limelight, some people assume that she’s starting out. Gosh, talk about blasphemy! Truth is, she has been around for about 15 years and is uncomfortable with the idea of being reintroduced. “That’s one of the struggles I’ve gone through,” she says, before breaking into a muffled giggle.
HEALTHWISE
One other struggle she endured during her tenure at Zabalaza was a medical condition that saw her become vegetarian as a way of alleviating the symptoms. “By the way, I so dislike labels! I dislike the word vegetarian more, but I’ll accept it,” she says softly. She takes a long pause to mull over something and breaks it with a very calculated, “I’m just trying to decide if I should share the details of the medical condition.” In the end she divulges that she went through a phase of growing hair on her face and how her body just wasn’t in tune. Now, because television amplifies everything, the hair seemed more pronounced on screen and the producers started getting worried. “I was called in to talk about what was happening and I told them I didn’t know either. With that, I had to wax my entire face and reacted badly to the wax. I had what looked like a bad case of acne with puss and had to be on television looking like that,” she recalls, also adding that her confidence took quite a knock, as a result.” Doctors ran some tests and suspected that I had Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, which means the eggs that I was producing had cysts. Upon googling the syndrome, she found a lot of women who had the same condition. “One of the ladies I found had a full-on beard that you could plait, and she’d decided to own it and the fact that she now looked like a man. I refused to accept my situation because that would’ve spelled the end of my career. Or I would’ve had to play male roles,” she says jokingly. Doctors tried various ways to alleviate the condition – one of them was a change in diet. Once she eliminated the meat — which seemed to trigger the condition — her symptoms disappeared. “See, there was no consciousness to my vegetarianism. The first two years were hard because I didn’t know what to eat. I would eat fries or salads, but that wasn’t sustainable or sufficient. I still crave meat, especially when I go back home and there’s umcimbi. I want to dig in but I can’t because my health is more important,” she says. Even though Zandile has always been a disciplined eater, this has turned out to be quite a beneficial journey healthwise. “I had
I’ll be forty soon and ndimdala to be seen just nje. I don’t want to be out there for the sake of being seen.
to learn how to replace the nutrients I was no longer getting from meat. I don’t cook as often as I’d like to because I live alone. I love eggs and I could even eat them at night and justify it by saying it’s protein,” she quips.
ON EMBRACING THE FUTURE
If there is any truth to the assertion that our 20s are a time to experience life through mistakes, then our 30s should be for developing our own tried and tested life formulas. Surely then — let’s speculate, because we can — the path to one’s 40s can be likened to a garden with beds filled with glaring and character-building lessons for us to pick and utilise going forward. One’s sense of self seems to magnify closer to the forties, as can be seen and heard in how firm Zandile is when she admits to things like not having a ‘favourite anything’ or how she dislikes labels. Her publicist, Vista Kalipa, quickly steps in to explain that Zandile finds beauty in the weirdest things. Zandile retorts, “I’m very eccentric! I don’t have favourites, but I’ll have a favourite moment in a movie or a favourite line in a song or a book.”
A free-spirit — yes, I say this even at the risk of Zandile rolling her eyes at yet another label being used to describe her — she’s learnt not to pressurise herself. “I have things I want to do and I have time frames, but I’m also accepting of the fact that life has its own plans,” she continues. For instance, she’s sticking to her guns when it comes to areas of one’s life where society has put deadlines. “Marriage is often what the world wants for women, but it’s also important that one decides what they want for themselves. I’ve come to understand that love is about journeying together instead of wanting to arrive at a certain destination. I’m in no way anxious about kids or marriage. People generally tend to think that kids must arrive at a certain age,” she says, matter-of-factly.
Zandile turns 40 in July this year and admits to never having had a birthday party before. She definitely plans to celebrate, but is still conflicted as to how. An avid traveller, the 39-yearold has been weighing the option of travelling against blowing money on alcohol and food. “Would that amount not get me to a certain destination where I can experience something new rather?” she asks rhetorically. “There’s reason to celebrate my 40th and it’s not necessarily about the time or the year. It’s about celebrating the future and everything that it’s bringing. Now that I think about it, I’ve never given myself a moment to say, ‘you’ve done well’. We’re always functional and rushing off to do the next thing,” she says.
SCHOOL OF HARD-KNOCKS
Zandile studied Speech and Drama at the University of Cape Town, then went straight into theatre, a disciplinarian art form she describes as her first love. After travelling extensively with the theatre productions she was cast in, she moved to Joburg in 2003 to start her television work on Society. “Society was a lot of pressure because I wasn’t quite well trained for television. From then on, I landed roles on Soul City, Rhythm City as well as long and short films. My theatre work took a bit of a break but in between the televison work, I would squeeze in a theatre production that ran for six weeks or so,” she recalls. When Mzansi Magic launched, Zandile joined the cast of
Zabalaza then later The Queen, her current role. However, things took a turn for the worst after Zabalaza. She remembers experiencing a dry spell that left her panic-stricken because she had to start all over again and audition. However, she wasn’t too stressed financially in the beginning because she’s generally good with managing money.
“I’m good at saving and getting rid of debt. Then, I didn’t care if I didn’t eat at night just as long as the car was paid off, and the rent was paid well in advance,” she says and adds, “I’m not, in any way, saying that I didn’t struggle financially, but I didn’t find myself ever going out to ask for loans. If I can’t afford something, I quickly accept my situation and move on. The hardest was when I didn’t have a place to stay but, luckily, I have cousins in Joburg who took me in until I was back on my feet.”
This financial discipline, she says, was instilled in her from home.
2019 PLANS
What Zandile has finally accepted is that she is an artist through and through, something she initially struggled with. “I’m an actress, director, producer and storyliner and this year, I plan to dedicate more time to these skills. I want to continue directing and possibly do my own TV show and theatre production. I’m always keen when asked to contribute to the production side at The Queen, but want to now start taking it seriously,” she enthuses.
Along with this, we can also catch her on a few films produced by some of her colleagues, which will be released during the course of 2019.
I’m an actress, director, producer and storyliner and this year, I plan to dedicate more time to these skills.