Former Miss South Africa finalist Luyanda Zuma has gone from the catwalk to the netball court on Mzansi Magic.
She's headlining the channel's new Monday night drama Obstruction, about teenager Zano who has the skills to be a star netball ace, but with a father who's holding her back.
Zano's dad isn't a Dad Le Clos or KG Rabadad - far from it - he's a secret gambler who probably watches too much Big Brother Mzansi!
This is Luyanda's first starring role and her third on TV since her
Miss South Africa stint in 2022 where she made the Top 10.
Luyanda doing a schmodel "forehead touch"
in her official Miss South Africa pic.
She was in her final year of study at AFDA at the time of Miss SA and had a recurring role on Mzansi Magic's maskandi music series uZulu noMhlaba later in that year.
And today (21 February) she's appearing in the Mzansi Bioskop movie Ubuhle Bendalo on Mzansi Magic at 15h00.
Obstruction premieres on Monday 18 March at 20h00.
The story synopsis:
Zenokuhle (Luyanda) is a 17-year-old high schooler and netball superstar with dreams of making her mark and getting picked to play for the Gauteng Provincial Netball Team.
However, getting there does not seem like it will be easy as she contends with the challenges she has to tackle head-on.
The premiere episode introduces Zano and her mother Thandiwe, whom she feels is the only enemy of progress in her life and does not understand her netball needs.
This is proven right when Thandiwe decides to uproot their lives and transfer her to a new school, in a new neighbourhood where she needs to start anew.
Moreover, she has to prove her skills by trying to lead a not-so-great team to the netball finals.
Unbeknownst to Zeno, the true impediment to fulfilling her dreams is her charming, lovable father whom she doesn’t know has a serious gambling addiction that has led her mother to break her back, covering up for him out of love for her daughter.
She also has to face off with new schoolmates, some of whom are not exactly thrilled by her presence plus a love interest set to shake her world even more.
A question at the centre of the series: can a mother’s love be strong enough to transform a teenager’s self-perceptions and values, thereby changing the course of her future?
Other starring cast includes:
Bukamina Cebekhulu as her mother Thandiwe,
Menzi Biyela as her father Mandla,
Lerato Mokoka as her frenemy Ora,
and Nhlanhla Kunene and Thembsie Matu.