Connie Chiume has vowed to continue acting until she “walks on crutches” after her role as Mamokete on Rhythm City was terminated.
|||Popular veteran actress Connie Chiume has vowed to continue acting until she “walks on crutches” after her role as Mamokete on Rhythm City was terminated after nine years.
The Golden Horn Award winner for Best Supporting Actor in a TV Drama Series said she made her acting debut in a theatre production called Sola Sola in 1977.
It was at the height of the student uprising and she was a Soweto schoolteacher who found herself with ample time on her hands, as fewer students were attending classes.
“After I saw an advert for performers I applied and got an audition as I was coming from a class and the rest is history.
“Here I am 39 years later. We performed Sola Sola here, in Israel and in Greece,” said the actress who made her TV debut in the drama series Izihlabathi Zigqibene.
Connie hails from Welkom, in the Free State, where there is a Chiume street named after her late policeman father. She moved to Jozi to study for a nursing diploma but did not complete the course. However, the move opened up opportunities for her to fulfil her childhood dream of acting.
“At home, my father used to ask me to sing and dance for family guests. When I grew up I was never a naughty child. I just enjoyed singing and dancing at school,” said Connie who today is still admired and celebrated by many people in Welkom.
Harking back to her last assignment as Mamokete on Rhythm City, Connie has a vivid memory of when she first went to audition for the role and was given a wrong script.
The character of Mamokete resonated with her own character. “I am like Mamokete in many ways in that I’m a person who likes to help others in solving their problems amicably, even if not invited to do so.
“I am that person who can go to a funeral or start peeling vegetables without feeling that I am a so-called celebrity and without even worrying about my nails,” she said.
Viewers will see her on Rhythm City for the last time on Wednesday, nine years after she joined the show in 2007.
Contrary to media reports that she will be going farming, Connie says she will focus on her company, Siphahle Trading, which will provide farmers with organic fertiliser inputs.
Connie has two biological children and adopted her late sister’s two children.
Her mother, now 94, still watches her TV programmes and is her number one critic.
Bidding farewell to Connie, Rhythm City series producer Yula Quinn said: “We will miss her on the Rhythm City set and on our screens.
“The Rhythm City producers, the cast and crew, and e.tv join in wishing her all the best with her future endeavours.”
Sunday Independent