A shattering secret
Ngcolosi’s life’s work is destroyed when the Bhengus’ sordid past comes to light.
This is the moment that we’ve been waiting for since Imbewu launched on Monday 16 April 2018. Talk about a build-up! The last people blind to the fact that Phakade (Sandile Dlamini) is secretly the biological father of all four of his brother Ngcolosi’s (Tony Kgoroge) children are finally about to discover the truth. Take your vitamins, brew your tea and book your viewing couch, because it’s going to be a marathon of mayhem as both betrayed spouses, Ngcolosi and Phakade’s wife KaMa
donsela (Fundiswa Zwane), lash out in righteous fury this fortnight. We spoke to Tony about creating the epic series of confrontations that lie ahead for Ngcolosi…
TRUTH IN CHURCH
KaMadonsela names and shames the adulterers on Wednesday 5 December. “Ngcolosi loses it when he hears the truth and he hears it in church” says Tony. “His wife MaZulu (Leleti Khumalo) has done something that has crossed the line and not once, not twice, but four times. They have four kids. It means that this has been happening behind his back all this time! And that is not something easy for any man can bear.” The truth is a lot to process: the adultery, the betrayal from everyone closest to him, the sudden exposure of his own infertility, the loss of his bloodline, the destruction of his plans for passing Maluju Oil down through the family. And the shattering of his trust and his dreams will trigger a confused rage in Ngcolosi.
THE BITTEREST OF BETRAYALS
“Ngcolosi takes a gun and threatens to shoot both MaZulu and Phakade when he finds out that they are together again, trying to find a way to get out of the situation,” says Tony. “The other big confrontation is when he throws the whole family out of the house [on
Friday 7 December]. He says the wife must go, his mother MaNdlovu (Thembi Mtshali) must go, all the kids must go. And then he kicks himself out of the house too and goes to live in a hotel”. But what truly shatters Ngcolosi is finding out that his children
Zithulele (Raphael Griffiths) and Zakithi (Nokubonga Khuzwayo) were both in on the secret too. He is so angry that he has Phunyuka (Mduduzi Nombela) toss Zakithi and Zithulele out of Maluju like trash on Monday 10 December. “He is like, ‘Ah, this is too much!’ It makes him feel as if he has been played all along. If he was that kind of crazy guy, he would have shot up the whole household and started afresh with a new family. He carries a lot of anger with him after that,” says Tony.
BYE-BYE BUHLE
But Ngcolosi’s parting with his innocent youngest child
Buhle (Vuyokazi Tshona) has far more sorrow in it than anger on Friday 7 December. “Vuyokazi could not hold back her emotions, which in the end played into our closeness onscreen because in the story, Buhle is Ngcolosi’s favourite daughter,” says Tony. “When Ngcolosi is losing her, it was for me as if she was my own daughter, my only child. So when I told her that I am no longer her father, I shed a tear,” reveals Tony. “With the others, it was okay. Zakithi is more of a tough girl. But Buhle is his
little love, she is his sweetheart. She is that baby girl who would go, ‘Daddy, I think I need…’ And Daddy would go, ‘Uuuuuh, no.’ But at the end of the day he would bring whatever she wanted. With Buhle, he is more softy-softy”.
ALL STRIPPED DOWN
Ngcolosi’s fury drives him to extremes when he finds MaZulu in the house packing up her things on Tuesday 11 December and he demands at gunpoint that she leave behind everything that his money bought, down to the clothes on her back. “Ngcolosi and me are far different people! It was so hard for me. I can see in the street sometimes when I walk by that people may think that that is how I am. But Tony is different from Ngcolosi,” he reminds us. With Ngcolosi increasingly out of control, he attacks Phakade on Wednesday 12 December and tells his mother MaNdlovu that she is dead to him on Monday 17 December. But some relationships prove easier to turn his back on than others. “He’s been a real mummy’s boy. Now when he becomes rude, she says to him, ‘You must remember that I am your mother,’ and then he will tuck his tail between his legs. He tries to cast her off but it is the hardest thing for him,” says Tony.
SURVIVING DESTRUCTION
Is there anything left of Ngcolosi to survive the truth that has laid waste to his life’s work? “He still has his business partner and friend Pranav (Koobeshen Naidoo). They share a lot in common in terms of life experience and business experience. But they are both kicked out of Maluju. He has no business. He has no family. He has no wife. All he has besides that is whatever is left of his bank account. And that is it.” In Ngcolosi’s position, Tony would simply walk away – but he’s not talking about giving up. “Ngcolosi goes to places he never used to go before, like the shebeen, and that doesn’t help the situation. While you’re intoxicated, you can tell everyone where to get off and swear at this one and mistreat the other one. But when the alcohol is out of the system, you are in the same spot. In a situation like that, I would need to walk away, find peace, spiritual wisdom and a deeper sense of self before you can make any drastic decisions.”
FOR THE CHILDREN
And if he takes time, Ngcolosi might realise that the 25 years he spent raising his children aren’t wasted years. “I have a friend who found out when his daughter was eight that she was not his biological daughter,” reveals Tony. “I said that I wouldn’t know what to do if that was me. And one beautiful thing that he said to me was, ‘It’s not the child’s fault. This kid knows me as her father. It’s not her fault. And she must not suffer for that.’ That’s one of the things that Zimele will have to think through. It’s not their fault that the tradition that we follow can lead us into a situation like that. It’s something that he will have to consider and say, ‘To them, I am their father and that’s it’,” says Tony.