She has been making waves on our television screens as Princess Dipuo in Mzansi Magic’s The Throne and as Lesego and on 1magic’s Unmarried. Keke Mphuthi is becoming a force to be reckoned with in the local entertainment industry and she’s set to wow us again soon with more!
Keke grew up in a staunch Christian home, with a mother who is a bishop. She’s humble and down to earth with deep spiritual beliefs, she’s also a new mommy to her baby boy Hunny. Although she’s been a bit quiet on our screens, she’s been working on a new exciting project that soon to be revealed.
Keke also has her sights on changing the lives of disadvantaged girls. She aims to make the world a better place for young black girls while pushing women empowerment.
She’s your girl next door, who prefers the simple things in life and told us all about it.
WHERE DID YOU GROW UP?
I grew up in Kimberley. I went to Northern Cape High School and later to tertiary in Bloemfontein where I studied for a Diploma in Business Management. Afterwards I got a job as a junior events coordinator. The acting thing was not something I had initially set out to do, although I did drama in high school. I had to get an education first, as per my parent’s orders. There’s a stigma about going into the entertainment industry in black families, so it was important that I do my parents proud before deciding to pursue anything else, especially acting. My inner rebel did not allow me to forget about my passion. As soon as I received my diploma, I presented it to my mom and went on to chase my dreams. It all worked out in the end because now they are super proud of me and they are my biggest fans.
HOW IS FAITH IMPORTANT TO YOU IN YOUR DAILY LIFE?
I would say that I’m more spiritual than heavily religious. My mom is a bishop, and I grew up with strong church values. I’m more of an ancestral, spiritual type of person as opposed to the traditionally religious, church-going person. I love the church, I don’t mind going to church but I dwell more in my spirituality. I believe Christianity is very dynamic and there are a lot of political things behind it, so much so that it seems like people have somehow lost sight of its essence. Nothing can ever shake my spiritual awareness and alertness. I’ve always believed in customary beliefs and have grown up practising and understanding them wholeheartedly. That part of my faith is stable – there is nothing that will go on in my life without having faith.
WHAT WAS IT LIKE WORKING ON THE THRONE?
I had an amazing cast, working with industry veterans and people that I grew up watching on TV and aspired to be one day. I’ve learned so much from them every day. The conversations, the laughter, the wisdom, and the wealth of knowledge they shared with me brought me so much joy and peace. It was an amazing time and I grew so much from playing Dipou. I still have friendships with people from The Throne today.
WHAT ELSE ARE YOU PASSIONATE ABOUT BESIDES ACTING?
I’m such a big fan of ‘girl power’, I’m a ‘girl boss’ kind of girl. I’m all about helping the next woman thriving instead of shutting her down. So, I think if I were not acting, I’d be concentrating on non-profit organisations that have to deal with the stability of the young black girl. We are not as fortunate as other races in terms of knowledge, resources, power and freedom of speech. You have to be a certain class of black to be able to access and achieve a lot of these things. For the girl next door that can’t afford a sanitary pad, the girl that has no soap to wash her underwear and clothes, the girl who has to choose to buy bread instead of a pack of sanitary towels with her last cent – those kinds of girls need to be shown a strong female figure and taught that their strength lies beyond the challenges that they are facing. With all that we go through psychologically as females, it can be tough and I'm passionate about creating a space of refuge for young girls.
No one walks disadvantaged girls through the path of life – we all go to different schools with different resources. Some schools are equipped with adequate and efficient counselors and some are not. So, my work would be to bridge that gap and uplift the girl child.
WHAT MAKES YOU SO PASSIONATE ABOUT WOMEN EMPOWERMENT?
My mom is an entrepreneur. She’s the first female in the Northern Cape to own a driving school that is accredited with her own fleet of trucks and vehicles. A lot of women in my family are business-minded. So watching them do what they do best and be awesome at it, inspired me to follow in the same footsteps of entrepreneurship. We are three sisters at home, so you can imagine women empowerment is something we strongly believe in. We push girl power because we don’t have the same equal opportunities as men, especially in the entertainment industry. We have to face challenges of unfairness with compensation even though at times we do double the work compared to our male counterparts. In the world we live in today, as much as we say ‘girls rule’, or ‘girls run the world’ it’s time we act upon that and cement our places in the world. We need to believe the things we say to each other and ourselves. So my initiative is based on making sure that girls understand their power.
Related article: Raising girls with power
YOU POSTED ABOUT BULLYING ON SOCIAL MEDIA, WHY?
People presume that celebrities or those in the limelight, have perfect lives. People think they have money, and that they did not go through hardships in life. They think that everything is perfect and nothing can go wrong in our lives or has ever gone wrong. So, I wanted to share with the next person how real I am, I’m just Keke.
Growing up was not easy for me, I also went through my fair share of challenges from primary school right through to high school. The bullying video was my way of showing and sharing with the world that life happens to all of us. I’ve been through tough childhood moments, such as sitting in the bathroom crying because I was teased. I was laughed at because of things like being too hairy for a girl, having a big bum at an early age, even the birthmark on my cheek. I was bullied quite intensely and that, in turn, made me a resilient and violent person. My form of retaliation became beating others up – that became my defense mechanism. If anyone said something I didn’t like, I would beat him or her up. It took so much to learn to deal with that anger, I had to go to therapy, and learn to understand that I am not a problem to the world. The world is already full of problems, and I don’t owe the next person perfection.
These are the type of things a normal girl growing up goes through – you can’t stop regular everyday experiences. My weapon was to bully the bully without realising what I was becoming. I had to find a way to stop, and that only happened when I got to tertiary. It was so late in my life and I regretted my last years of high school. I asked myself ‘why and how did I become this girl?’ I needed to take accountability for my actions even though they happened years ago, to begin the healing process from that trauma.
When I posted the video, I wanted to show the world that I’m not just an Instagram mom or a social media influencer. I’m a regular girl, an everyday girl that just works in an environment that is public.
WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM YOUR HEALING PROCESS?
These lessons are things that I will teach my baby as well. I’m raising a boy so I need to raise a different kind of man. We all know the issues we face with the men in this country – gender-based violence, femicide and sexism. God has given me a really hard task with my son Hunny, and I need to be 100% aware of whatever he goes through and guide him. I’m up for the challenge though because he’s such a mommy’s boy and carries most of my personality traits.
WHAT PROJECTS ARE YOU WORKING ON NOW?
Eish, I wish I could share the exciting news now but unfortunately, I can’t. What you should know is that I will be back on your TV screens very soon on a very big project, where I have a lead role. I can’t disclose any more details because we have NDAs so I’ll have to keep hush about it until it comes out. I would call this new venture ‘my comeback project’ because of its magnitude. Other than that, I’m trying to develop a ‘girls skills’ concept and see where that leads.
YOU CELEBRATED YOUR BIRTHDAY BY HAVING A PRAYER SESSION, TELL US MORE?
I celebrated by inviting women from the entertainment industry to join me in a big prayer moment and to encourage each other. We are seen as haters and people that can’t stand together and for each other. I wanted to change this narrative, and show that we are not in competition, but we are sisters. Whether you are a journalist, actor, presenter – as long as you’re in the entertainment space we are seen as rivals, and that is not true. The only way to embrace ubu mbokodo is to show sisterhood and how we girls rock!
WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN 3 TO 5 YEARS?
I’m more of a family orientated person. In the next few years, I’ll probably have another baby, and get married. I’m very laid back, I wouldn’t say I aspire to have the ‘American dream’, I like to keep it local. I want my achievements to be here at home and stay in my comfort zone.
WHO DO YOU LOOK UP TO?
I really can’t wait for an opportunity to work with Clementine Mosimane. I love her so much! I look up to the much older generation of actors. I feel like I learn so much from them. I’m in awe of people like Ntate Jerry Mofokeng who have kept their careers going for such a long time. I’d love to know what their secret is. I have my list of veterans that I would love to work with, so I’ll put that out in the universe and hope my prayers are answered.
WHAT IS THE ONE THING THAT YOUR FANS MIGHT NOT KNOW?
I love my ‘me time’! If I had the opportunity, I’d be a housewife with five to six kids. I’m very old school like that. It’s the simple things in life that matter to me!
GIRL POWER WITH KEKE MPUTHI
Reviewed by Michelle Pienaar
on
March 12, 2021
Rating:
Reviewed by Michelle Pienaar
on
March 12, 2021
Rating:
