The war next door

Soso Rungqu chats about how she got the toughest job on TV...making peace between feuding neighbours in Umakhelwane.

- GENEVIEVE TERBLANCHE

Soso Rungqu (outspoken welder and activist Morongwa Kau in cancelled soapie Isidingo until 2018) laughs as she recalls the toughest audition of her career. "The starting point was me having a meeting with the executive producer and they said, 'This is the idea for the show. It's going to be challenging. It's really demanding because we're dealing with different people, different communities all over the country.

Basically... you're solving problems"." That's an understatement. The show is So%%o Umakhelwane, Sundays on Moja Love (*157) at 20:30- and the problems Soso has to solve involved bitter and sometimes violent conflicts between neighbours.

"I was told I would need to audition for the pilot. And it was a different kind of audition - you don't do it in front of the camera with another guy reading (the other role) for you. It's a reality show, so how they normally audition is they put you out there in the street and give you an episode to do and see how you are going to do that." Soso's face shows clear astonishment as she speaks. "It had a camera crew, it had everybody there. I had a sound check, I had make-up and wardrobe. I did everything! It turned out so great that they even used it as an episode," she adds. "I was nervous. I was a wreck! But I pulled it off." As it turns out, that trial by fire was 100% necessary, because uMakhelwane would go on to present unimaginable challenges. Soso had to be tough as nails.

SOSO TO THE RESCUE