MOMMY GOES MAD
Tshidi flips when Gadaffi reveals the truth about Amo
She won’t give
PLUS! “her baby” up!
When Tshidi’s (Letoya Makhene) foster baby Amo (Noluthando Nxumalo) falls dangerously ill again on Wednesday 23 December, her own mom Zondiwe (Abigail Kubeka) worries as he’s rushed to hospital. Meanwhile, single mom Tshidi isn’t coping with her “son’s” condition. “It rips her heart out, as she’s formed a bond with the child,” explains Letoya. Little does she know that they’re also bonded by blood. But she’s about to find out that Amo is actually her brother Tau and his wife Karabo’s (Rapulana Seiphemo and Connie Ferguson) baby who was presumed dead in August through her gangster husband Gadaffi’s (Vuyo Dabula) trickery.
OUT OF JAIL “Amo’s temperature is high and the doctors don’t know what’s wrong,” says Letoya of Tshidi’s predicament on Thursday 24 December. Meanwhile, her husband is organising his way out of jail by striking a deal with Detective Zondo (Nico Mkhabela) on Friday 25 December and Tshidi has no idea that Gadaffi’s about to walk right back into her life. “She’s at the hospital by Amo’s side and he appears at the door,” Letoya explains. “Tshidi’s shocked and feels guilty for abandoning him but they’re reconciled through Amo’s ill health.”
THROWING THE BONES When Amo’s condition doesn’t improve, Tshidi seeks alternative sources to help the child and, acting on her mother’s advice, she goes to see a healer on Tuesday 29 December and is concerned by what’s revealed. “She’s told that Gadaffi is hiding something deep and dark and that Amo won’t be well until it’s revealed,” Letoya explains. “She gets home and badgers Gadaffi until, on Wednesday 30 December, he comes clean about Amo really being Tau and Karabo’s not-so-dead son.”
NOT LETTING GO For a master criminal, it might seem a little out of character that Gadaffi’s wracked by guilt, but it seems he’s seeing the error of his thug-life ways at last. That and the fact that the prophet said baby Amo won’t be in good health until the truth is revealed leads to Gadaffi telling his wife that he wants to come clean to the Morokas, but Tshidi isn’t on the same page. “She’s heartbroken,” says Letoya. “It’s like finding out your child has died.” When the Morokas visit Amo later on Wednesday 30 December, Tshidi stops Gadaffi from confessing to them and later, after they’ve left, she threatens him with the only ace up her sleeve: she tells him that he dare not tell anyone otherwise she’ll skip the country with Amo. “There’s a mental instability of sorts, but it just looks like a mom not wanting to lose her child,” Letoya adds.
SHOCK & HORROR
While Tshidi’s kind of losing her mind, it isn’t long before Tau and Karabo are made aware of Amo’s predicament when the prophet arrives at their doorstep on Friday 1 January, claiming that she was led there by the spirits. She tells Tshidi, in the presence of everyone else, that Amo will die if the truth doesn’t come out and then walks away, leaving everyone gobsmacked. “Tshidi panics,” says Letoya, but no one’s more freaked out than Karabo when she has an odd dream on Monday 4 January. Karabo sees herself breastfeeding Amo and questions the dream’s meaning. It appears that she may be drawing closer to the truth, but Tshidi has no intention of losing Amo, regardless of whether Karabo finds out about the baby or not. “She has had sleepless nights with him, nurtured him and loved him. She can’t have her baby ripped away from her. Not now,” says Letoya. But just how far will she go to keep him?