She had big plans for 2020. Following her show-stopping wedding last year, Baby Cele looked forward to a sun-soaked honeymoon with her new hubby. The actress, who has branched out into production, had also planned to promote her new film, but then Covid-19 happened and everything had to be put on hold.
Just as she was getting to grips with life under lockdown, another disaster struck. Baby was dealt a terrible blow when she lost two relatives recently. In April, her beloved sister Norah was killed, allegedly at the hands of Norah’s son, Mbuso. The family is still battling to come to terms with the tragedy.
“This has been a very difficult time for us,” Baby tells DRUM.
“Mbuso was okay, he had a job and seemed fine. It didn’t make sense to us why he would do such a thing,” she says.According to reports, Mbuso – who had been suffering from depression – shot his mother before injuring his wife, Zanele. The women had apparently refused to go for a drive with him when he turned a gun on them.
Zanele (35) survived the shooting but Norah (72) died at the scene.
Mbuso (37) fled in his car and was later found in Amanzimtoti with a bullet wound to the head.
At the time of the deaths, Baby says the family were reeling from the heartbreaking loss of Norah’s younger son, Lindokuhle (23), who was stabbed to death in February because he was gay.
Baby is struggling to make sense of it all. “We thought [Mbuso] was just going through something that was making him unhappy but something deeper must have been eating him.”Baby says no one really knows what happened that day. “I was told he arrived home saying he wants to talk. But clearly, he had already made up his mind.”
The murder and suicide have “crushed us”, she says. “You never think things like this will happen to you, but this time it hit home.
“Depression is tough to understand. All the signs were there but, you know, sometimes in our communities we do not take depression seriously, we think a person will be okay.
“If a person is sad or unhappy, we think they will eventually get over what they are going through. But that was not the case with Mbuso,” she continues.
“All I want now is for us to heal and make peace with what happened.”
FAMILY is important to the TV star. With the country still in lockdown, Baby (48) has been spending her days bonding with her daughter Yolisa (21) and nine-year-old son Thando.
“Yolisa started her first year at Lisof fashion school where she is studying fashion design. She’s very good with sketches,” she says.“I was advised to try a boutique school where he can get individual attention. So, he attends school with two to four children in a class but now, because of lockdown, Thando is doing online schooling. He is incredibly smart,” she adds proudly.
“Lockdown is difficult, but we are making the most of this situation.”
Despite rubbing shoulders with Mzansi showbiz royalty, she doesn’t have a domestic worker and prefers to be hands-on around the house.
“I don’t have an aunty that takes care of my kids. I’m very finicky about my personal space,” she says.