Tshisa is a South African television youth drama series produced by Moja Movie Factory which focuses on two young people – Bafana and Ayanda – who win the job of presenting a sizzling new TV show and set against the backdrop of life choices, the price of fame, the allure of bling, the downward spiral of drugs, overcoming disability, love, relationships, HIV, families and the traditional ties that bind.
The series premiered on SABC1 on Thursday 21 September 2006, at 21h00. See "Seasons" below for seasonal broadcast dates and times.
Season 3 premiered on SABC1 on Friday 25 May 2012, at 20h30. New episodes broadcast weekly. There are 26 episodes in the third season.
Season 1
Tshisa plays off within popular youth culture.
It focuses on two young people – Bafana (19) and Ayanda (20) – who win the job of presenting a sizzling new TV show. Their boss is the stylish and determined young TV producer Vinolia.
Bafana also works the recording studios and the nightclubs with a troupe of dancers as his career as a kwaito star takes off. Ayanda, meanwhile, is establishing herself as a model.
The story moves out of the TV station and into the daily reality of the characters’ lives: Bafana’s family in Mondeor; his girlfriend, Precious, raised by a strictly traditional Ndebele grandmother; and Ayanda’s mother who has been growing progressively blind and must now learn to live with total blindness.
Tshisa is a story of how our choices affect those we love – especially the effect of drugs on those choices.
Tshisa is a tale of life choices; the price of fame; the allure of bling; the downward spiral of drugs; overcoming disability; love, relationships and HIV; families and the traditional ties that bind.
Each episode of Tshisa follows three lead characters in three big story arcs – Bafana, Ayanda and Vinolia. A smaller story features a celebrity appearance.
Season 1 Celeb Appearances
Episode 01: Sbu Leope
Episode 02: Mafikizolo
Episode 03: Azania
Episode 04: Lira
Episode 05: Mzambiya and Msawawa
Episode 06: Zamajobe
Episode 07: Thebe
Episode 08: Ntando
Episode 09: Simphiwe Dana; Lebogang Mashile
Episode 10: MXO and Sliq Angel
Episode 11: Zubz and Ella Buta (fashion designer)
Episode 12:Tuks; Brickz and Sash
Episode 13: Malaika
Season 2
Bafana has been hit by a bullet outside the shebeen on a Soweto street where Bafana, Baksteen, Lindiwe, Precious and Bheki grew up. The bullet impacts on all of their lives and on the TV show Tshisa that Bafana presents with Ayanda.
Baksteen launches a solo music career and comes under new management – in the form of his merchant Sosha. His new producer at Skhokho Records is a smooth operator called Sly. We also meet Baksteen’s mother for the first time.
Ayanda makes a bold career move and a new female presenter at Tshisa arrives in the form of Latoya. Sabz, a mysterious and talented new director arrives on the scene.
Ayanda’s blind mother, Thembela, ventures into the workplace and we meet her boss, Menzie. Ayanda’s evil aunty Thami is full of schemes. And her little brother Speedy seems to be going from strength to strength – until he hits his biggest obstacle.
The biggest new arrival in Ayanda’s world, though, is a tenacious tabloid journalist, Pushy.
Precious is torn by her love for the two brothers, Bafana and Bheki. Her dream is to study at Technikon. Lindiwe is pregnant and her parents try to milk her situation.
Golden boy Bafana Shabalala must face life in a wheelchair. He has to rethink the journey he’s been on. But will he be able to stay away from the drugs?
Season 2 Cast
All the main cast from Season 1 - including Bongani Masondo, Zukisa Matola, Innocent Masuku, Melusi Yeni, Thandy Matlaila, Mbali Mlotshwa and Manaka Ranaka - return for Season 2.
New supporting characters in Season 2 include:
Pushy
Played by Lerato Moloi
It takes a tenacious sneak with brilliant survival instincts to secure the front page stories on a tabloid. Enter Pushy the journalist that can make or break a celebrity.
Latoya
Played by Miranda Mokhele
The new face presenting Tshisa is Latoya. Hers is a Cinderella story and her struggle to get a break has made her tough enough to handle a cut-throat industry. Latoya is Miranda Mokhele’s first major role on TV.
Sly
Played by Andile Mbatha
The new platinum producer at Skhokho Records Sly might have bitten off more than he can chew when he signs Baksteen on. But he’s a sussed and scheming force behind several music legends.
Sosha
Played by Mzwandile Nikane
Sosha is a lot smaller than Baksteen, but he’s a brute and a leader. He’s a drug merchant. He’s also Baksteen’s new manager.
Season 3
Tshisa 3 is a hard and glitchy post-kwaito redemption song with a beautiful singer on the backing vocals. The theme of the season is picking up the pieces and putting them back together.
What caused you to shatter and whether those pieces can still cut you raises many of the dramatic questions in the series, especially in relation to young black men in South Africa today.
The consequences of too much partying and too much drug taking have rocked the characters' world. It's time for them to grow up a bit. The new season of Tshisa is about redemption, about trying to stay clean and build a future, about learning to love yourself despite your past.
But that's easier said than done in the television and music industries and in a town where packs of girls go hunting to snag a celeb and drugs fuel the scene – from BEE joints to the local tavern.
You need money to get ahead and if sex is how you get it, then so be it.
Noxie and Lindiwe, Bafana and Baksteen will have to battle all the same temptations and try to make better choices.
Season 3 Cast
Most of the main cast from Season 2 - including Bongani Masondo, Zukisa Matola, Innocent Masuku, Thandy Matlaila, Mbali Mlotshwa and Given Stuurman - returned for Season 3.
Melusi Yeni appears in the first two episodes of the season but his character was put on hold for the rest of the season due to a scheduling conflict with his role in Generations.
Other cast members not returning this season include Manaka Ranaka (Vinolia), Lerato Moloi (Pushy), Miranda Mokhele (Latoya) and Andile Mbatha, who played Sly.
Season 3 features several new cast members including two new "Tshisa" presenters - newcomers Thulisile Phongolo in the role of Zama and Mxolisi Masango in the role of Spoke.
In addition, Vatiswa Ndara replaces Helen Ndamase in the role of Thembela Ncebe.
Other new cast members include Masilo Magoro as Baksteen's father Morena, Linda Sebezo as Maggie, Percy Ingle as Moses, Brandon Auret as Michael and Yonela Duze as Zukiswa.
A number of celebrities play fictitious versions of themselves this season, including Toya Delazy and Lulo Café.
Seasons
Series exclusive to SABC1
Season 1 (13 episodes)
Premiere: 21 September 2006 | Finale: 14 December 2006 | Thursdays, 21h00
Season 2 (26 episodes)
Premiere: 9 September 2008 | Finale: 3 March 2009 | Tuesdays, 20h30
Season 3 (26 episodes)
Premiere: 25 May 2012 | Finale: 23 November 2012 | Fridays, 20h30