Soapie Scandal! might be ending next year, but viewers can still expect high drama on-screen with the addition of Camilla Waldman, Sonia Mbele and Jo-Anne Reyneke.
Mbele and Waldman break it down to Sowetan on how they plan to heat up the e.tv daily drama.
Did you audition for this?
Waldman: I was very thrilled to audition for Scandal!. It’s one of the daily dramas that I’ve long respected in the SA television space but hadn’t yet been a part of. So, to even be invited to audition was grand.
What drew you to the character Nina Bishop?
Waldman: The character of Nina is very interesting. In her beginnings, she’s a tough cookie. She’s very straight-talking and follows the path of justice. But I think I’m yet to discover just who she really is.
That’s what intrigued me; she’s very tough with Tiro [Lebohang Msiza] and she isn’t beyond saying: “Look, we’ve got to strategise here, and we’ve got to find a path through what is clearly going to be a very difficult case.” And she says: “I don’t lose.”
For a woman in the legal space, even in the world of courage in 2025, to have that kind of confidence and to speak out – to say, “I don’t lose, I don’t like to lose” – that line jumped off the page for me.
What can viewers expect from your character, Mamsie?
Mbele: Mamsie is a role I’ve been looking forward to playing for a while. I generally try not to play roles similar to my previous ones. They say you’re “as good as your last performance”, and I strive to make my roles as memorable and indelible as possible.
Mamsie is just that, a character who’s going to shake things up as much as possible. People are either going to love or hate her, there’ll definitely be no middle ground.
I loved her because she’s nothing like anyone I’ve played before. She’s the type of woman I’ve always wondered about.
How different is she from your past roles?
Mamsie is a hottie. She’s unapologetically crass, and she’s so unaware of her flaws it’s not even funny. She’s the crazy I’ve always been pining for in a character.
