Before he was Sphe in Netflix's Umthetho, Given Stuurman was the eight-year-old asking for lobola in a bank ad. He talks family, danger and building a character SA already claims as its own.
Given Stuurman talks to The Citizen about fleshing out his character Sphelele “Sphe” Dlamini in Umthetho, Netflix’s new South African crime drama. Picture: Supplied, Mishaal Gangaram (@mishaalganjaz) for Netflix © 2026
Long before he was dodging danger as Sphe on Netflix’s Umthetho, Given Stuurman was the country’s favourite eight-year-old groom. His breakout moment came in 2003, when he charmed South Africa as the tiny suitor asking for a girl’s hand in marriage in Postbank’s now-iconic Lobola advert – a clip that’s followed him through two decades in the industry and, more recently, resurfaced online as a meme reworked around his Umthetho storyline.
It’s a full-circle moment for an actor who’s been in front of cameras since he was five.
That history is part of why Stuurman’s casting as Sphelele “Sphe” Dlamini – the youngest of three siblings at the centre of Umthetho’s prison-syndicate drama – lands as it does. South Africa has, in a sense, watched him grow up on screen.
Building Sphe from the ground up
Actors on Umthetho didn’t get their characters’ full arcs upfront, working instead off partial scripts and their own instincts to fill the gaps. For Stuurman, that meant constructing Sphe’s identity almost from scratch.
“First and foremost, I think how good he looks,” he tells The Citizen, before getting to the substance of it: “the aura, the energy, the vibe, the dialect… the sense of clothing that Sphelele wears… his energy, the way he moves – it’s very Soweto. It’s very Kasi. It’s very, ‘I can relate to that guy.’ It’s very, ‘Oh, I know that guy in the hood.'”
It’s a specificity that wasn’t necessarily written into the character bible, and Stuurman is clear-eyed about the fact that he built it in: “Which was something that wasn’t really there when we were making it, and I can say that’s an element that I brought.”
A good guy who’s dangerous to know
Sphe’s arc follows the fact that his own family’s unravelling hinges on him – but Stuurman resists reading him as reckless or foolish.
“One of the things that made me play this character is he’s actually a good guy. I think him being so good is what actually puts him in danger. His naivety results in his recklessness. His blind love results in certain decisions. His undying loyalty to certain aspects of his family results in him making certain decisions.”
He also sees that as bigger than the show.
“A lot of young people just find themselves, maybe not as deep as the character, but a lot of young people just find themselves in those crosshairs with their family and never really know how to navigate.”
Playing it close to home
Umthetho‘s prison setting wasn’t an abstraction.
“I’m one person who has actual real family members who are doing time in prison,” he says plainly. “I think that was also one of the reasons why I chose to do this… having known those challenges and struggles personally from those people, it was good that finally they’re being put out there in a way that is educational and sort of not really pointing fingers… but it’s in a way that shows that we can all actually make a difference to make things better.”
Asked what he wants viewers to sit with once the credits roll, Stuurman points back to collective responsibility.
“We are all a part of the arm of the law… we are also lawmakers… I feel like the one thing that people should take from this is that we all have a hand to play in the lawlessness of certain things. Whether it’s a good hand or a bad hand, we all make a difference.”
