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Sibongiseni Shezi won the Best Actress in a Film award at the Simon Mabhunu Sabela KZN Film and TV Awards.
An emotional Sibongiseni Shezi gestures after receiving the “Best Actress Film ” award for her role in ” Umjolo:The Gone Girl” at the 12 the Simon “Mabhunu” Sabela Awards film and and television awards at the International Convention Centre in Durban over the weekend. Photo: Rajesh Jantilal
It’s seldom that things go exactly the way one wants them to. The imagined end goal is usually fixated in the mind, but the journey there, which often takes one on an unimagined whirlwind, is rarely as anticipated.
Actress Sibongiseni Shezi, who won the Best Actress in a Film award at the recent Simon Mabhunu Sabela KwaZulu-Natal Film and Television Awards, has had her fair share of disappointments in her professional journey.
“So, I’m not gonna perform an act of false modesty and say the goal was never to be a lead, to be acknowledged in this capacity,” Shezi tells The Citizen, less than 24 hours after winning the award.
The award was for her portrayal of Lethu on Netflix’s rom-com, Umjolo: The Gone Girl.
“However, the time at which it’s happening surprises me. A lot of life has occurred and I’ve been humbled by a lot of things that I think my receptors receiving it now is a lot more…it is overwhelming.”
“I definitely think that these are answered prayers but they don’t look the way that I anticipated and they feel a lot better,” she says. “The reality of where I come from, how hard it’s been makes this so worthwhile.”
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Shezi’s journey of adversity
After completing her matric in 2009, Shezi enrolled at the University of Cape Town to pursue a Bachelor of Music in Dance to become a professional dancer full-time. She had been dancing since she was three.
However, due to injuries and being in a new city with no family, she ended up unable to complete her degree.
In 2015, she took a gap year, and the following year, she decided to transition from theatre acting to television. However, she first wanted to understand TV, so she studied cinematography at the film school AFDA.
“By the time I got into AFDA, I was trying to be behind the scenes because I was trying to understand what this machine is before I try and be in front of it. So, I thought I would be a cinematographer at the time,” she shares.
The decision to go into cinematography came after she also developed performance anxiety. Shezi also tried her hand at psychology during this time.
In 2020, she experienced one of her biggest heartbreaks when she was chosen to play a lead in an international project, where she was set to play a dancer. However, due to an injury, she was let go.
“Two days before they wana shoot, I was diagnosed with shin splints and they said we can’t carry on with you,” she shared.
“One of the biggest heartbreaks I’ve ever had in this industry, earth-shattering,” she soberly says.
She says it took a while to heal from that particular adversity, but says she now has. “But I’m actually so grateful that it happened because I did not think I was gonna come back from that.”
Shezi support
Many in her position would’ve detached from the dream of ever performing after encountering disappointment at a young age. She says her family has played a significant role in supporting her.
She says she’s the ‘black sheep’ of the family as her other siblings are in more ‘formal’ industries like law, finance and entrepreneurship.
“I cannot fault the support of my family. It was hard for them to support me going the [creative route],” she says.
“But I think the continued support from them seeing me do it bit by bit and being like ‘okay, I think she’s not delusional’.”
She says her ‘athlete mindset’ has also been an anchor. “It’s a get-up and go. You don’t have time to nurse your injury. If I pay attention to it [injury/difficulty] it’s gonna get worse. So, I gotta keep going.”
Faith and perseverance are also things that kept her going. Shezi says that all her adversity has made her a more well-rounded artist.
“It’s made me a better creative…a better contributor to society, a contributor to storytelling; it’s the light at the end of the tunnel that I’m able to inform the narrative, that it doesn’t necessarily have to end in darkness and a pitfall,” she says.
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Being part of Umjolo series
Very few things are as topical as the dating scene, and the number of nominees received by Netflix’s Umjolo series at this year’s Simon Mabhunu Sabela awards reflects this.
What makes dating so relevant is that most people are not as fortunate in finding their ideal partner. “Oh yea, that’s a big contributing factor,” exclaims Shezi, bursting into laughter.
‘Umjolo’, which is a slang word for dating, was the theme throughout the four films that Netflix released in four months.
The four films are: Umjolo: The Gone Girl, Umjolo: Day Ones, Umjolo: My Beginning, My End, and Umjolo: There is No Cure.
“I definitely think that one of their [Umjolo creators] winning ingredients is the fact that it’s the most relatable topic currently. We are going through it,” says Shezi.
“I think also it was refreshing to get mainstream content explored the reality of umjolo [dating] as per Mzansi at this time, post Covid. ‘Love language’ has been a chat, this and that. People quarantined with someone who married someone else.”
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