New face for ’90 Plein Street’
Wheelchair-bound basketball player Unathi Rasmeni from Cape Town has been added to the cast of SABC2 television series '90 Plein Street'.
90 Plein Street. Image Courtesy: SABC2
Rasmeni has been signed on to play the role of Collins Maduna in the upcoming fourth season of the political drama and he apparently has quite a lot in common with his character who, apart from being in a wheelchair, is also religious and has a close bond with his sister. In the show, Collin is the brother of Lerato Maduna, played by Precious Makgaretsa.
Speaking to SunBuzz, the 21-year-old explained how he landed his new role: “I play wheelchair basketball for South Africa and Western Province. A lady called Mam’ Margaret found me on the internet and told me that the role would be perfect for me.”
Mam’ Margaret was apparently faced with the rather tricky task of not only finding a suitable wheelchair-bound lad to cast, but also to find one that’s impressively multilingual.
“I can speak Afrikaans, isiZhosa, English, and isiZulu,” said Rasmeni of the attributes which made him perfect for the role.
“My mother tongue is isiXhosa but after my accident in 1995 I went to boarding school and that’s where I learned how to speak Afrikaans.”
Born and raised in the Eastern Cape before moving to Khayelitsha in Cape Town, Rasmeni was paralysed from the waist down in a car accident when he was a three-year-old.
Season Four of ’90 Plein Street’ kicks off on SABC2 at 9:30pm on 10 December 2013.
– TeamTalk
