Nokuzola Mlengana

Nokuzola Mlengana (1962/3?-2021) was a TV actress

Biography

Born the Eastern Cape, where her upbringing included having to fetch water from a river and making fire to cook. Walking 10km a day to access education was a daily occurrence and FM radio was more popular than TV.

She fell pregnant while in Standard 9 (Grade 11) and could not go back to school. She then went into business in the 1980s, selling clothes, furniture and vegetables. With the money she made she moved into a suburban home in 1994 and got married in 1997. The marriage lasted for seven years before the divorce was finalised in 2005, leaving her with three children, Patience, Siyosindiswa and Ntombiyonsindiso.This led to her becoming clinically depressed and wanting a break, so she sold her house and went to Johannesburg in 2009. Determined to make some income as money from the sale of her house was running out, she went to every audition she heard of and in 2013 forced her way into an audition for Skeem Saam, and got the part.

The actress died aged 59 on Monday 12 July, 2021, while still working on the programme.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

Besides playing the role of "Sis' Ouma" in the SABC1 TV soap Skeem Saam, she also appeared in a number of other local dramas, TV adverts, and TV movies.