Sello Maake kaNcube is a well-known face on South African television screens, having played the role of Archie Moroka on Generations since 1993. The Soweto-born actor has appeared in a string of films including A Dry White Season, The Rutanga Tapes, Dark City, Wheels and Deals, The Good Fascist, Bopha!, Taxi to Soweto, Djadje: Last Night I Fell Off a Horse and Othello: A South African Tale, not to mention stage plays.

His most recent role has been the recurring character of Daniel Nyathi on etv’s Scandal, a role in which he playes a powerful black businessman. The actor has been very outspoken about the lack of black roles on SABC television.

Sello is following in the footsteps of producer Michael Lee in an ongoing hunger strike against the SABC in an effort to get the broadcaster to produce more local content. The actor said he was especially moved by the example set by 23-year-old production assistant, Zamambo Tshabalala, who recently reached 30 days of hunger striking.

“I would like to believe that I am a child of resistance. Nine days after my birth in 1960 saw the Pass Law resistance in Sharpeville. The spirit of that resistance must have found itself in my infantile nostrils as in some small way I have always been standing up for something,” says the seasoned actor.

Sello says he is willing to continue his hunger strike to 30 days if necessary. “In my own small way, I have again and again contributed to the liberation of my country. I may not have suffered detention on Robben Island or exile. However, having lived under Apartheid was prison itself, living with a constant threat to one’s life and being reminded of being a lesser being. I have had my fair share of that. Now I stand before you about the hunger protest. Do I think that this will amount to anything? Well, every little bit helps – and if the bits each and every one of us did had not been done, for instance, during the Apartheid years, we wouldn’t have had this new dispensation.”

Sello says he fought for the rights of black scriptwriters during the early days of democracy and has no qualms about fighting again. “Yes the SABC is a problem, but it is no the problem, just a symptom of what is happening in the country. As a black person, I have worked in the industry for over two decades. There is a black story to tell. I was even contemplating giving up acting because there were no black parts to play. The parts I was offered over the years were usually lousy roles in good stories. Fill-in roles, cardboard cutouts. Even today African culture is just a fill-in. You go to a function and you get the African dancers who will just dance to make sure there is a little bit of this culture mixed in. These are some of the things that actually grind my ass to the bone on a regular basis.”

“The country needs to wake up for itself and the government needs to wake up to what is happening in the country. We the people cannot be on the peripheries of life. All over the world, TV is a training ground for artists, writers, crew, all kinds of cultural workers who later become the backbone of the society’s discourse. If you look at the kind of TV that is coming out all over the world, even people who are well-known names are going for TV – Glenn Close and James Spader, for instance in America – and you realise how important TV is. And how in trouble we are if we are not going to have a national public broadcaster that is going to take care of its citizens and provide us with a useful and effective platform.”

For more updates on Sello and other industry members’ hunger protests against the SABC, click here and visit the South African Screen Federation Blog.

Sally Fink