Clementine Mosimane is a South African actress best known for her starring role as Thandi Mazwai in the SABC1 drama series Soul City, from 1994 to 2003. She also starred as Mama Rose Tladi, a pillar of the community and mother to all, in the M-Net soap opera The Wild, from 2011 to 2013.
In addition to The Lab, Yizo Yizo, Intersexions, Clean Break, eKasi: Our Stories, Ngempela, Rhythm City, Mzansi Love, Kasi Superhero, Onder Draai die Duiwel Rond, and Stash, Clementine has guest-starred in numerous Television series. She starred as Aunt Thembi in the Mzansi Magic soapie Zabalaza on the first season of the e.tv game show I Love South Africa in 2014.
#YouWithTheBoys speaks to veteran Clementine Mosimane on her journey and rise in the entertainment industry to become as iconic as she has in the industry.
These are some of the questions asked to the veteran:
Do you think I have been lucky, I have been working hard or I was just blessed with a good agent?
“I just think God has just blessed me, and that’s it, because some things just happen and you dont know, how did you just get here? When did it happen? It is just the grace of God and I just thank God for the blessing.”
Who or what inspired you to pursue a career in the arts?
“When I was in school, TV 2 and TV 3 didn’t yet exist and they were trying to put them together and they were scouting, and two guys were working for a production company and they were working on Diarora music programs. While we were there as viewers, they told me they were looking for a presenter for a magazine programme. Would you be interested? At the time, I knew nothing about television.”
“I said, yes, of course, I will come for auditions and I went and by the grace of God I became an anchor for the show and that’s how it started for me.”And then from there now on, in the normal how does it work for you? Now that you are on this one show, is the now a huge demand for you? Or do you still have to go to auditions for other jobs I mean how do they contact you? How did it work in those days?
Looking back at her most memorable roles dating from her 20s. In the 1980s, she played a role in a play entitled Hlakansuki in which a pregnant woman’s husband engages in an affair and leaves her while she is pregnant with their third child, later the man dies, leaving the family in distress. Mosimane attended no drama school, so she had the challenge to ensure she was doing justice to this character. Thankfully, Lawrence Lawrie apologized openly for the emotional turmoil the actress had to convey to the audience. She credits God for her iconic artistic output over the decades, refining her craft over time.
“Now I am in this magazine programme, I am a presenter and I am meeting people of all walks of life of different careers and that intrigued me and then Mme Lilian Dube had an agency at that time and then I went on to be booked by her agency and she was scouting jobs for us and they would send us to auditions and we would go for auditions and we would get roles and then I did a chicken voice for the next five years and that’s how it started and went for me”
Mosimane’s recent Netflix deal (How to Ruin Christmas) has been a refreshing change to the current norm; she mentions Netflix sending her a gift on her birthday. As the industry grows and launches more competitive platforms, let’s not forget and value the artists that keep audiences engaged.
Check the full interview below:
