Sello, Pearl Thusi explain Zim visit

TV and stage actor Sello Maake kaNcube has shrugged off public backlash that he sold his soul by accepting an invitation to Zimbabwe.

Maake kaNcube was seen in a picture alongside Pearl Thusi that trended over the weekend posing with Zimbabwean president Emmerson Mnangagwa and various ministers from that country, wearing scarves in Zimbabwean colours.

Their visit came just days before Zimbabweans head to polling stations later this month where Zanu PF's Mnangagwa faces stiff competition from Citizens Coalition for Change leader Nelson Chamisa. Many social media users viewed the visit by SA entertainment personalities, who included actress Sonia Mbele, as endorsement for Mnangagwa.

Speaking to Sowetan after the criticism, Maake kaNcube said he was invited by minister of Information, publicity and broadcasting services, Senator Monica Mutsvangwa, for a tour of Zimbabwe.

“The invite also fell in line with a personal campaign of taking my expertise in the arts to Africa, as I find myself hamstrung to make a contribution in my own country.

“I accepted the invitation for personal, social and business purposes. My wife is a Mbewe who is actually half Zambian and Zimbabwean. She had never been to either country, so her being to Victoria Falls for the first time was a magical experience for me.

"There’s a quote that says that 'An opinion is like the nether part of the anatomy ensconced between the buttocks, everybody has it'. Beyond that anybody’s opinion about me has never been my reality. Even when a person would say what a good actor I am, I know the limitations of my craft and what I still have to perfect.”

He said he first visited the country for a shoot in 1988 and in 1990 he considered migrating there but this desire was short-lived by the unbanning of the political organisations in SA and by the release of Nelson Mandela.

“When I visited in 1988 it was for the first time I had set my foot in a country that had gained its independence from colonialism. It filled me with so much elation. Going there this time after the land reform, which found the country subjected to sanctions that crippled its economy and saw it citizens crossing the border to South Africa to eke a living, Zimbabwe is a nation on the trajectory of rebuilding and reconstructing itself brick by brick.”

During his visit, Maake kaNcube also visited Victoria Falls and farms owned by black people and created a video which he posted.

Standing with one of the farmers, Maake KaNcube can be heard saying: “This is my first time in an entire life that I am standing on a farm owned by a black person. But I never stood on a farm owned by an Afrikaner either. But what is important is that this is a land that is owned by its own people.”

Thusi went onto social media and said she had no regrets about going on the trip.

“For those people who made it look like a political trip, those people are the ones who punished the three of us, who were told we are going there for good times and tourism.

“I had a good time, and I don't have any regrets whatsoever. I don’t regret a thing, so all the best to you guys. I had a scarf. What was I supposed to do? The president gave me a scarf. I took the scarf,” said Thusi.

Thusi said she didn’t know about the pending elections. - SowetanLive