It's what parents have to do': Lerato Mvelase on Nomusa in The Wife'Lerato Mvelase has received high praise for her role as Nomusa on The Wife'. We caught up with the actress in an interview. Take a look.
by Nokuthula Ngcobo
11-03-2022
in SA TV and Film
Lerato Mvelase as Nomusa on The Wife'. Image: Supplied/ Showmax
TV industry commentator Kgopolo Phil Mphela sang the praises of actress Lerato Mvelase on Twitter on Thursday 10 March, for her performance as Nomusa in Season 2 of The Wife, which is still the most-watched show on Showmax.
--
Mphela called the raunchy scene that was aired this week, the most explicit sex scene ever from a South African production between Khanyi Mbau's Zandile and Mondli Makhoba's Nkosana.
ALSO READ: The Wife' fans react to Zandile and Nkosana's raunchy scene
Lerato Mvelase talk about screen presence.
Every frame, Sis shows up!
I'm a huge fan #TheWifeShowmax pic.twitter.com/tGt8XSL4Q1
Kgopolo (@PhilMphela) March 10, 2022
ALSO READ: The Wife': Khanyi Mbau echoes fans' sentiments that the storyline is dark
--
ABOUT LERATO MVELASE AND HER ROLE Mvelase is an Emmy nominee for her performance as Katlego in Home Affairs and was SAFTA nominated for her roles as Sibongile in Isibaya and Lillian in the Oscar-shortlisted film Life, Above All.
In The Wife, she plays Nomusa: The woman who replaced Zandile (Mbau) in her jail cell when the Zulu brothers broke her out at the end of Season 1. She's also the woman who Nkosana keeps visiting every week to keep up appearances although he's not fooling the police commissioner anymore
We caught up with Mvelase to find out more:
--
Q&A WITH LERATO MVELASE: MORE ON NOMUSA How did you react when you found out you'd gotten the role? It was obviously very exciting for me, seeing that The Wife is one of the most spoken about productions at the moment. Which actor doesn't want to be in the most popular show of the moment, to share your talent with the rest of South Africa?
Tell us about your character, Nomusa? She's a single mom who lives with her mother and her sickly son. He needs a very expensive surgery, which she obviously cannot afford because she works as a cleaner. When Nkosana approaches her, it's tit for tat: I do this for you; you do that for me.
So she's an honest working mum who is now having to go into jail to be a prisoner, so that she can save her child's life.
Was that a hard decision for her? To give up her freedom for her son's well-being? It wasn't even anything that she had to think about. She wants to save her child: if the opportunity comes, even if it comes at her own expense, she's doing it without even flinching. She loves her child that much.
But it is at her own expense, isn't it? She doesn't have it easy this season. So you've got this woman who makes an honest living, a woman who obviously has worked hard for her own integrity in her own little world, right? And all of that has been attenuated to prisoner.'
Everything that you've worked hard for means absolutely nothing. She's nothing but a prisoner now.
But she's not a criminal.
She's faced with cellmates who are constantly questioning her, telling her, You are not who you say you are.' And she can't say, I'm not that person' because she doesn't want to ruin the opportunity of having her son getting the surgery that he needs.
I guess for every parent, you go through things and sometimes we have to be stoic about our own situations. Sometimes you can't be weak; you have to face the challenges of your life. So she's in jail and she's just got to do what she's got to do. It's what parents have to do; they sacrifice.
Nomusa isn't in Zandile The Resolute', Dudu Busani-Dube's book that inspired Season 2 of The Wife'. What does she add to the story in the series? She brings a different dynamic, which parents will relate to. As parents, we are often so busy raising our kids and trying to survive that we don't take a moment to acknowledge how much we actually do for our families to work, for this machine to keep moving.
I hope Nomusa's story will also help young people to see the daily sacrifices parents have to make.
So this is one of those storylines that really touches on the essence of who we are as human beings. And I guess that's why many people relate to this character and her sacrifice.
How does Nomusa differ from other characters you've played? When I think of all the characters that I've played, what makes Nomusa different is that within her weakness, we see so much strength.
I've played characters who are strong, overtly strong. And then here Nomusa is: this woman who people might look at and be like, I have no confidence in her.'
We know she's not a gangster. She's not going to be stabbing anyone in the jail cell. She's probably not going to be fighting anybody. She doesn't want trouble. She just wants to be here, to serve the sentence she needs to serve.
It's just unfortunate that she's now exposed to the dynamics of a jail cell. There's no peace. You wake up and someone wants to stab you. What are you going to do when you've never stabbed anyone? When you've never had to confront people violently or aggressively and now you're faced with that?
You know, when you're thinking of jail, you have a preconceived idea of what happens to people in jail and how they have to be butch and boisterous and aggressive. But Nomusa is literally the opposite of that, which makes it even harder for her.
But I love that, because it's such a challenge.
If you went to jail, what would it be for? My kids.
If you weren't acting this
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
It's what parents have to do': Lerato Mvelase on Nomusa in The Wife'Lerato Mvelase has received high praise for her role as Nomusa on The Wife'. We caught up with the actress in an interview. Take a look.
