Image: Instagram/Connie Chiume
It came as no surprise to fans of veteran actress Connie Chiume when they realised just how much she’s slaying the character of Mam’ Sonto on Gomora. However, both Connie and her fans didn’t believe that women such as Sonto actually exist but they do.
In an interview with TshisaLIVE, Connie laughed when she explained that since people realised that Mam’ Sonto was no typical “mama wom’thandazo” they’ve been DM’ing her and telling her about women in reality whom they suspect are also wolves in sheep’s clothing.
“Sonto is such a layered woman. One minute she’s praying and the next she’s in the back office counting money from hijacking profits. I thought people would hate her or when they see me they would act out but instead people are just fascinated. The thing is she’s not pretending to be either of the sides people have seen, she’s actually both.”
Sonto is a streetwise, strongly religious, no-nonsense gogo from Alex. A series of events and aspirations in her life, including high ambition and love for the finer things in life, created in her a hard-core criminal who eventually turned into a car hijacking syndicate boss.
Her official front on the telenovela is that she’s a shebeen owner and even though people know that the shebeen can’t be her only source of income — because she’s ballin’ — nobody has the guts to ask.
“One actor who grew up in Gomora called me just as the country was learning more about Sonto and he said, ‘You know what, your character reminds me of this other auntie in my hood.’ We laughed because he wasn’t the first to say this and I was like, ‘Yoh, this means aboSonto really do exist and people actually know them.’”But for the challenge-loving actress in Connie, mam’ Sonto has been nothing but a pleasure to play. Connie loves that Sonto is a layered woman and even though she doubles up as an evil person essentially, Connie loves that she’s not a typical “mama”.
“Some things Sonto does and says shock me. I mean this is a woman who said to Ntokozo, ‘sometimes before you hijack cars, you must say a prayer my boy.’ As an actress she’s a great character to play because I also learn more things about her everyday,” she said.
Check out Mam’ Sonto doing what she does best below, poor Pretty never knew what hit her in this episode.