Sipho who plays Sambulo Zulu on The Wife Showmax had a chat with Drum Magazine this week as the country is trying to figure if his character was killed or he will emerge in the next coming episodes.
“This character is different from me, I can talk. Yhoo, I can talk and Sambulo is so quiet,” he says.
“Sometimes when we are shooting, other characters are busy going wild, whether it is excitement or anger, and I can’t because Sambulo has to be calm. You must remember that Sambulo is an inkabi (assassin), so he has to be quiet. Inkabi cannot be all over the place. You cannot be dangerous yet you are running around being loud every chance you get. Playing Sambulo is not easy, it is challenging,” he says with a laugh.
He says from the minute he leaves his house going to set, he is already preparing for Sambulo.
“On set, I greet people like Sambulo would. I do not go around hugging people asking how their day has been. I walk into a room and I say ‘sanibonani’. If you hear me, you hear me but if you don’t then you don’t. It is what it is.”
Last week South Africans took to social media speculating after a cliffhanger of an episode where it was not clear whether or not Sambulo had been killed or not. This week, there was a funeral, but South Africans are still not convinced.
Sipho says he does not know what happened to Sambulo either.
“It is also very typical of Sambulo that there is a mystery surrounding his death. People need to keep watching.
“The response from viewers has also been overwhelming. As actors on a show, we do not compete for attention, obviously some characters will get more attention than others and that is okay. I must say though, it was great to see the love and appreciation Sambulo was getting. It was nice to know that his contribution to the show is seen.”
There is more to Sipho than meets the eye. He has an amapiano track that is out, Amathanga Amhlophe, on YouTube and Spotify. He studied towards a BA degree in Communications and he also did drama at University of Limpopo.
“In life, I believe you should try different things and you must also have something to fall back on and not put all your eggs in one basket. I have had hard times in life, but I have managed to overcome.”
When he was in grade 11, his mother passed away at the beginning of the year and he had to live on his own until he finished matric. In that time, he considered dropping out of school.
“My older sister was married already and I had two younger sisters and the youngest was 8 years old at the time. My younger sisters were taken by relatives in Limpopo and I lived alone. It was hard, I had to buy electricity and food for myself. You cannot study when you’re hungry.
“At some point, I considered dropping out of schooling and looking for a job in the mines, but my teachers would not let me. They said I should wash their cars at school and that was how I earned money. When I passed my matric my teachers suggested that I go to the University of Limpopo so that I do not find myself feeling pressure to live a certain lifestyle in a university in a big city.”
And through it all, he made it.
Once asked whether he’s on or off the market, Sipho turns into Sambulo, keeping his answers short.
“I am not married but I am in a relationship.” He says he is not sure if he wants to get married or not. One thing he does wish for though is children.
“It is a sore point for me. At my age, I was hoping to have at least two children by now but unfortunately, I do not have children. There was a time where it seemed like I was going to be a father, but the lady had a miscarriage.”