Celebrated actress Connie Chiume, who passed away this week at the age of 72, was as passionate about her craft as she was about the rights of fellow actors. Renowned actor Mpho Molepo, who starred alongside her in numerous television productions over the last two decades, pays tribute to the fallen legend.
I met Mom Connie around the Newtown precinct, where she had a clothing store. I started working with her around 2002 in Yizo Yizo. Then we worked together in Cape Town doing Mazinyo Dot Q, and then we also worked together in Zone 14 and Rhythm City. I was there for 14 years and she was there for about eight years.
In Mom Connie, I saw my own mother, to a point where I brought them together. My mom is 75. They had certain similarities, my mom was a teacher for 40 years. Mom Connie was
also a teacher before she joined the arts.
My mother would always invite her to come to our church, St James Anglican Parish – in Soweto, whenever there was an event. We never missed any family’s function. We became family. When I got married in 2012 Mom Connie drove all the way to Free State to come and speak at my wedding.
Mom Connie didn’t shy away from challenges. I remember when we started in Zone 14, she had never played a diva but she was so happy that finally she was going to play such a role.
She had always been cast in these roles of a typical township woman who was crying and so on. But in Zone 14 she played a diva, Stella Moloi and even won an award for it.
She had a special gift to draw people to her. It was her persona. She was not a celebrity. She used to say to me, “My son, you are not a celebrity, just be an
ordinary person.”
We [young actors] were all her children. She had deep emotions. You asked her to cry, and she would cry right away. That’s what made her a special actor.
She could also dance. She would dance to a point where we would get embarrassed and say can you please sit down now, like children would say to their parent dancing in public.
She could sing. It’s the dancing and singing that people don’t know about her. She also loved travelling. There was chemistry between us. It felt natural.
When she was sick, Tumi, herson, told me she was in hospital but he said it was not a good time to visit her. I said “let’s give her a week or so then I will go visit her”.
But now I even regret that I didn’t go see her then.
I last saw her around April or May but we spoke a lot on the phone. I sent her a message on her phone on her birthday in June and she didn’t respond.
I knew that something was not right. She was really ill this time.
One of her best qualities, she had botho (compassion/humanity), which we seem to have lost somehow. We are in an industry that is very competitive and people tend to climb over each others heads.
But Mom Connie wasn’t like that. You could rely on her. I don’t know how many parties we had at her house. She would, out of the blue, bring a big of amangqina, mogodu and feed everyone.
She was very serious about her craft. But she was also very naughty. She would crack a joke just before we shot a scene and everyone would laugh. And if there was any injustice towards artists, she was the first one to stand up against it. She was fearless. She was an activist and as much as she was nice to everyone, she never shied away from speaking out if she felt things were not right.
When it was announced that she had passed away, my mother called me and asked, “Are you, okay?” And I wasn’t okay.
- Molepo is a seasoned actor who has played leading roles inGangster’s Paradise, Jerusalema, Rhythm City, Losing Lerato,Yizo Yizo and Zone 14, and others
