The shenanigans of 20-year old
Mzansi actress Khanyisile Mbau seem to constantly result in a gossip-fest of notoriety and heated opinion.
Firstly she took over from actress Lindiwe Chibi as the legendary Doobsie in
Muvhango last year and got fired after being with the show for only a few months, then she started a steamy romance with zillionaire enterpreneur Mandla Mthembu - who’s more than twice her age - and now she’s moved into his Melrose Arch penthouse, preparing for their wedding and the birth of their baby.
Most recently the Sunday Times and Sowetan featured letters from people criticising Khanyisile calling her a gold digger, saying she flaunted what she has in a recent My Joburg article about her 600 pairs of shoes and seven cars – one for every day of the week.
Never one to believe a word I read and being the sleuth I am I decided to pop in at their Melrose penthouse for a chitter with Khanyi myself to find out exactly how bad she is.
I'd never realised that apartments are tucked away at Melrose Arch the way they are. Situated directly upstairs from the Ocean Basket restaurant in Melrose’s centre court, the penthouse is one of two – both owned by Mandla.
Seperated by an invitingly blue, long swimming pool, each has a huge glass door which allows you to catch a glimpse of inside, but not enough to see properly, unless you’re actually in.
Tashi: Can you believe that no-one on any soapie will tell me how much actors get paid in South African shows. I just
so know you will. How much did you get paid for Muvhango?
Khanyi: Muvhango – I got paid R35 000 per month, after tax and all of that. I got taxed R8000 so I got about R42 000.
Tashi: Is that an average salary? Is that what everybody gets?
Khanyi: I was a lead so amongst the leads that’s about it, but others got higher. I think Mara Louw got R65 000 at the time. You’d find that Florence Masebe was at about R55 000 so it varies with your character and how well you negotiate what you want. If you’re quite soft they’ll give you about R15 000 and that’s a rip-off. You have negotiate and actually be hard about it and not smile when it comes to your money.
Tashi: You took over from Lindiwe Chibi to play Doobsie in Muvhango but then your contract wasn’t renewed after a few months. Some reports say you weren’t good enough, others say you were too wild. What happened?
Khanyi: It was nothing about my acting - when it comes to acting, that’s my craft and it’s something I do wholeheartedly but I went onto the show and I marketed myself. I made sure that I used every opportunity – I wasn’t just focusing on my character Doobsie, I was focusing on how the show got made, how do I produce? - how do I edit?
I went to all functions to meet CEO’s and people who could save my career if the show had to end. You won’t find Muvhango people on the covers of magazines or doing ads, you won’t find them doing motivational speaking to schoolkids because they have this idea that they need to isolate themselves from the world.
It’s you and Muvhango and life ends there. I rebelled against that because I believe, as an actress, you can’t not exist. You’re on people’s screens, why shouldn’t you be known? Why shouldn’t you go for interviews on TV? These are a big no-no for Duma Ndlovu (the show’s creator).
Tashi: Is he old-fashioned?
Khanyi: Yes – he believes that Muvhango is very different from Generations. “We don’t do what Generations does. We’re a family orientated show and we’re Venda and we’re different. We don’t do photo’s on mags or adverts – we just stay away from the world.” For me it was a bit odd because I felt he had a fear that once you got in touch with a lot of other people you won’t succumb to him.
Tashi: Is he a control freak?
Khanyi: He is – he wants you to depend on him so he can run your life. For me it was a big no-no because I’d waited for the break for forever and once I had it I wanted to use it to my best ability.
 |
| As Mbali In Mzansi |
Tashi: Mzansi that came afterwards. How did that happen?
Khanyi: Mzansi caught me at my lowest point where I’d just lost Muvhango and they rescued me ‘cos I’d given up. I was at a point a where I thought: “Life is just not unfair, I’m not supposed to make it.”
I had the best time of my life filming the show. On Muvhango you don’t talk to anyone, you get in there, you do your thing and you leave. In Msanzi we invited each other to our homes, went to movies together, had fun together – it was really nice.
Tashi: Many people seem to think personalities in South African entertainment need to be a certain type of good and uphold the “right” values.
Khanyi: Yes, and you can’t have that. Entertainment is about different characters. You have your sweethearts, your hunks, your bad girls, bad boys, your rebels, your nerds, your blondes - that’s what creates TV because we’re not all the same. We can’t all be Charlize Theron.
Tashi: No – thank God. So you and Mandla – you chill out and watch E! a lot?
Khanyi: Yes, we wake up in the morning and just hang out until about 2pm. We cancel meetings the whole day because we’re so inseperable it’s difficult. Time goes too quickly when we’re together, we don’t get hungry, we don’t bored, we don’t sleep. We go to sleep at about 3am. Just sitting here.
Tashi: Mandla’s in his fifties isn’t he?
Khanyi: He’s fifty.
Tashi: Are you marrying him for his money or for love?
Khanyi: That’s the question that everybody asks. When I met him I didn’t know anything about him. I thought he was a journalist so I just didn’t feel his groove. I only found out about what he had a month after we started dating.
I hadn’t seen any of his cars, where he stayed – until one time when I was ill and he had to come fetch me. That’s when I saw: “Oh, you drive that? You have the same taste in cars that I do, fantastic, great.”
We’d already spoken about living our lives together forever and it’s hard to believe but everything was just: “Okay, alright, it’s a bonus” – but I liked his spirit from the day I met him.
Tashi: So what does he do? Where did he make all his money?
Khanyi: He started a printing company and they had a legal fight with Transnet. They sued them for I think about, 32 million, and he won the case so he got this chunk and started investing and started companies and invested abroad and buying shares and it worked for him. He invested so much that he had about 4 million left after doing all of that and it made money for him. That was about six years ago.
Tashi: How much money does he have now?
Khanyi: He’s worth quite a lot. He’s in the B’s.
Tashi: He’s a billionairre?
Khanyi: Ja.
Tashi: How cool is that? So what’s it like going shopping? Can you just go mad?
Khanyi: Mandla lives for shopping. I think when you’re at his stage, working is not about waking up in the morning and going into the office. It’s about having your laptop and you can go into the office to find out what’s happening anytime. Mandla gets bored, he takes out his credit card, he swipes and he shops.
If you could see the bedrooms, we have no space anymore because it’s just clothes all over the place. He wants his woman to look nice all the time, but he’s very real. He wants to save the world. Everyone he sees, if you’ve got a problem he wants to buy you a house, if you’ve got that problem, he wants to help you out – he’s special.
Tashi: Tell me about the response to the recent My Joburg article about you - I didn’t see the article but I’ve seen the irate letters from people saying you flaunted what you have and
this Sunday Times column about what people had to say in the Sowetan. What happened?
Khanyi: I always enjoy doing interviews here because it’s more comfortable. I could sit here the whole day and not go anywhere. Mandla and I drive flashy cars and usually when I ask people to come I let them park where we park so when a journalist comes and sees our names on our cars they’re like: “Okay, nice cars.” They come upstairs and say: “Oh my gosh, nice place.”
The journalist who wrote the story wasn’t here to talk about the cars, the house, the shoes and our possessions. It was supposed to be about: How do you feel about Joburg? How do you feel about this? How do you feel about that?
Afterwards, over coffee, they asked: “So what do you with 600 pairs of shoes?” Then you find the story in the paper where they’re saying: “Material girl Khanyi Mbau with her eight cars said this,” It’s not things that we agreed on that the journalist could use. It was just a conversation we had.
My Joburg always goes to everyone’s house to see where you stay. This is everyone’s dream – now that’s it’s happened why should I feel sorry for myself? We’re so quick to hear about black people suffering or our county’s economy going down – why can’t we celebrate what God has given you and say: “It happened to me, it could happen to you.”
Tashi: Did the letters affect you?
Khanyi: I’m human so it does hurt but I’m in the limelight so it’s what you can expect. You never know who your friends are, who’s really on your side and who’s not.
So many people say things about me but no-one says it to my face. The same people who wrote the letters, if they saw me they’d ask for an autograph.
Tashi: Maybe this is why you and Mandla get along so well – you know you’re definitely on each other’s side no matter what?
Khanyisile: Yes. Mandla and I don’t have friends, we just hang, just the two of us.
Tashi: I read that he said that Lobola was pricey.
Khanyi: It was okay – there were rumours that it was 1.5 million. In our cuture you don’t speak about it because it’s a curse on your marriage but he paid a fine price to honour my family and parents and by paying this he was helping them to better their lives. It was something that he offered.
Tashi: Apparently your mom hasn’t been happy with your relationship?
Khanyi: No, my mother was very depressed when she read that because it my mother was the one who said: “If this is what you want and you’re happy – go for it.” No parent wants to say goodbye to her little girl and it’s hard if your 20 year old daughter’s getting married to a 50 year old guy but she said: “You need to be happy – go for it.”
 |
| When Fridges Go Fab |
Tashi: Have you ever been in love before?
Khanysile: Once, once. It was a guy my age which put me off guys my age forever. I would always find him with other chicks. He could not be faithful and I just don’t have the energy to be all over the place with different guys. Older men have a way of making you feel: “This is my turf, this is my man.” And they give you a guarentee that: “I’m yours and I’m here.”
Tashi: Having a baby – you’re very young to be having one.
Khanyi: Hmm, 20 and I’m going to be a mom. That’s just a pressure of marrying someone older. He said to me: “Khanyi we need to have kids now ‘cos I don’t want to be too old to attend soccer matches.”
I have to grow quicker to accommodate him and he has to grow slower to accommodate me. We both have to compromise – me on partying and being young and waking up drunk on Saturday morning and him on being too serious and thinking of death – that’s just a no-no – he needs to think about life and staying young and going to the gym like he is now.
Tashi: How did you meet?
Khanyi: We met in Rosebank. I met him last year in July. He was with his girlfriend, I was with my friends. He kept scaring at me and I was quite uncomfortable. He stood up, went to the bathroom and when he left I asked people who he was.
They told me his name and that he was a journalist, that he stayed in Joburg etc. I left and met him this year, in February in Durban. I was checking out of the same hotel chatting to this guy trying to get my change and he kept butting in.
He introduced himself, I introduced myself and he said: “I know who you are, I’ve been looking for you. You’re my wife – we’re supposed to be getting married.” And I was like “Oh, okay.”
He gave me his business card, I eventually gave him my number, he was smoothe and convinced me to meet him for lunch in Joburg and from the day we met we had breakfast with each other every single morning before we started our day. We had breakfast here at Melrose Arch every morning and I didn’t know he owned this place. I’d drive in and leave every morning and had no clue there was life up here.
Ends