Getting real

Actor Vusi opens up about his character’s recent coming-out storyline and why it’s so important.

- LEZANNE JANSE VAN RENSBURG

So far, 2020 has been a horror show for Clement (Vusi Leremi). Forced to come to terms with fellow pupil Jonas’s (Mashako Mathews Mokgale) death at a school trip in April this year, Clement has battled. With all fingers pointing at him for Jonas’s death, we bet Clement would give anything to turn back time. But things keep getting worse, and in June, he faced his greatest battle to date: he came out as gay.

CORNERED

As the disciplinary hearing into the school tragedy reached its peak, poor Clement had little choice but to reveal this personal side to the school board prematurely. “He had initially planned to come out in varsity where he might be living at res, that way, it might have been easier for his family to accept it,” Vusi says since he would leave again after telling them, and therefore giving his family space to deal with the news.

With the misconception that Clement was after Jonas’s sweetheart Emma (Komotso Manyaka) and allowed Jonas to get killed to have Emma to himself, Clement had no choice but to come out. “He was forced into a corner by