COVER: Thando Thabethe celebrates a year of great learnings and great rewards
As the year winds down and many take stock of what 2023 meant to them, Thando Thabethe is by far among those who walk in victory. In her words, 2023 has been a beautiful year filled with great learnings and great rewards.
Just this year, the multi-talented personality bagged herself an award for the Best Actress in a TV Comedy for her role in How to Ruin Christmas: The Baby Shower and a Radio award nomination, with a lot of firsts including taking up her first ever animation role in a Netflix series My Dad the Bounty Hunter and launching her reality TV show Unstoppable Thabooty earlier in the year.
If winning was ever a person, Thando would definitely fit the bill. But with all the successes that she has garnered thus far, the star shares that the real story is in the work that she puts in behind the scenes.
“I think I’ve done both TV and radio for a really long time and with that comes a lot of ‘putting in the work’, discipline, and respecting the mediums. Work ethic is everything to me and the fact that I like my work (jobs) makes a world of a difference,” she said.
The thing about Thando is that she has an aura of surety about her. The kind that says ‘I got it all figured out’. But the star was quick to remind me that, like everyone – she is human and has bad days.
“A lot of what I do is stuff that I own, so if I don’t wake up, no one else will do it. It is for that reason that I can’t imagine myself being the opposite of working hard. And it isn’t always easy, that is why it is impossible to always be on the go-go-go. All of us have our ups and downs, even if you love what you do, you sometimes just don’t feel like it doing it. But it is on those days where I am tested the hardest and prove the love for what I do,” she added.
And with her many successes, Thando has made it a point to only be known for her work, “because it is work that I am here to do isn’t it?!” she said rhetorically.
“Everything that I do is in the same line of work. I am here to work and I believe that is what should be out there to be consumed,” she said.
Speaking about work, Thando has been casted as part of the South African version of Last One Laughing (LOL), alongside acts like Lasizwe, Tumi Morake, Moonchild Sanelly, Nomzamo Mbatha and Celeste Ntuli among others.
“What informs me saying yes to any project is the quality of the production, is it progressive TV, is it groundbreaking and what the script looks like. Just like Last One Laughing, I found that it is a project that really spoke to me and will challenge me as a creative.
“I’ll be pouring in everything I have in it and I think it’s always great to have an opportunity to tap into something new, something that will test you and your creativity, your sense of humour and how much you can laugh at yourself. I was excited to act-a-fool. There was a lot of preparation that went into it, we had workshops prior to actual filming and that prepared us to immerse ourselves fully.
“And although it isn’t stand up comedy, it does require us to some extent to be funny and I do consider myself very funny, yes,” she said giggling.
Under her belt, Thabooty celebrates 7 years since its inception – a business that sprung from her desire to create and own shapewear. A desire that morphed itself into a reputable business.
About the reality TV show, she said: “I wanted it to be more like a memoir than just a reality TV show, and because this is something I would not ordinarily do, it meant a lot to me to be intentional about what I put out there. Looking at that journey, I think it did really well. It was really important to tell my narrative and my own story my way and I am proud of it.
“The legacy I am building is looking outside of South Africa now and broadening my horizon. A lot is happening right now in terms of work, there is a project in the works that I have created, produced and starred in – which is super exciting.
“I just hope my influence is that you don’t have to depend on anyone for what you want. I think for some girls, they think that things are not within reach or that you need a man to whisk them away to make their dreams come true. But you are all in control of our destiny. We possess such a great inner power that once one believes and taps into it, so much more starts happening for us.
“I am living proof of it,” she said.
