Without the guns and harsh words that often set twitter on fire on Mzansi Magic's series iNumber Number, it is not easy to take the character of skroef or Mugza in the film, Hard to Get
out of Israel Matseke Zulu.
He still walks like the two characters in the film, talks like them but without the action and the drama of a film of course. The only difference is, in real life, this former jail bird want to leave a legacy that says, "Black men if you want something, do it yourself, there's no one who will help you achieved what you want in life." Yesterday, my cousin brother, Likhona Ndabeni and I found ourselves at tenth Avenue Alexandra township to meet a man who has so many street names. King of Gomorrah, King of Amaroto, Skroef. He is amongst the best in acting a character of a gangster. By the way, he was once a gangster and spent eight years in jail for the crimes he committed then. Also known as GP_ maorange, an acting and dance academy with his former Sun City prison mate now turned actor, Vusi Shilenge in his home township Alexandra, South Africa.
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| former car hijacker and house robber Vusi Shilenge has turned his life around. He is now a South African actor and mentors music,acting and dancing talent in his township Alexandra. |
He proudly tells me this is his fifth school, Israel Academy which he operate in school classrooms around the oldest township in South Africa after 5pm. A talent coaching school that he finance and had been running for more than twenty years without any brand partnerships or government funding. But despite it all, the school has produced amongst other television stars, Kgosi Mungake, Keabetswe ramashintsha, Thabang Mokoene, Kgothatso Kekana. "Create something out of nothing" is a module he says he use and by the surrounding and condition of the class, this becomes evident. "What if you do not get funding? You get disappointed and you will never do what you would love to do. "All my projects are paying project and all of my students who are given an acting, dance or singing role, I make sure they get paid. It's a system that I use to alleviate poverty in our black townships.Most children from this Academy are bread winners at home. That feels my heart because all these children are all coming from poverty stricken homes, some come from abusive homes different but painful backgrounds. They are here to do what they enjoy I make sure all my classes are entertaining so that they can keep coming back to learn,' says the Yizo Yizo star. His students had appeared in many films including, iNumber Number, Black Sushi,Soul Buddies, Soul City including adverts and soapies.
Zulu says he doesnt want anything in return for his time and skills but he is eager to make the children so occupied that they do not have time to spare."think about it, if the kids knock of at 3pm at school, does homework and soon after he comes here for a practise. By the time his day is over, he doesn't have any other options but to go home and prepare for the next day. This keeps them busy there's not time to think about any crime," he said. As he gets his students ready for rehearsal of Africanism.
A theatre play which will be release in March in all Gauteng province theatres. It is a play that seek to teach Africans to be proud of themselves, heritage and culture. Matseke Zulu had always been passionate about the arts. His love for performing started at a very young age, performing in churches, community halls and was a member of a gumboots dance club. He says because the industry did not pay in the days, he opted for being a soccer player and later fell into a trap of crime.
"Growing up in an apartheid South Africa, it was very easy to be involved in gangsterism. In Alexandra township where I grew up, our role models were gangsters. i was mentored by gangsters. I knew I will be in prison for what I was doing. Everyone around me had either been or came from prison.It is a life I had lived, it is not as glamorous as they make it look on tv. It is hardcore, you experience, robbery, bullying and if you not aware, the surroundings can strip you of the man you really are,' Matseke Zulu was heard telling another online tv channel.
Before practise begin with some warm ups, the class has to first pack the desk and chairs against the window, sweep the floor clean before class began with an African Dance accompanied only by him playing the instruments. Not much is said, as everyone follow the dance root, the jazz song and drum beat. Our host is also caught up in the sound, monitoring carefully the feet movement the students, the beat and the jazz song in the background. "Be professional in everything you do. You cant come here and do a rush rush job. Repeat again," he stopped the drum to confront a student whom through nerves, didn't do her acting lines properly. As spectators, we didn't notice. But the master did, he stopped playing the ground and join the students to demonstrate what the dance move should be like.
Even that, he does it so effortlessly as his body slide side to side like a snake. Ofcourse, there was a trip which saw the whole class laughing at him. But there were no love lost as the next performance gave a stunner performance in her poetry lines of the upcoming theatre play,
Africanism. The play is written and directed by him."Amongst all the themes I thought I should explore this year. Is that of teaching us black pride. Be proud of who we are as a black nation and be proud of where we come from. Celebrate African pride those are amongst other things I want to explore with this theatre play.
His classes are divided into two groups, the senior class and the junior class. On the classes we cut short because of the storm. As much as everyone enjoyed the rehearsal, the man in charge send them all home. "We need to be responsible in whatever we do.These parents trust us with their children so we need to respect that too. It is a win, win situation for all of us. Spending time with them is my way of giving the community what was not given to me as child. If we become spiritual about it, I can say rehearsal heal me from my nightmares nobody has told me to do this.
Before the junior class could go home, a short prayer is made for their safe travel.
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