Bulawayo's Luthuli Dlamini takes City to the world

LUTHULI Dlamini who plays Advocate Zulu on the popular SABC1's Uzalo, is a celebrated actor currently based in South Africa. However, in his native country he is an unsung creative gem despite him representing Zimbabwe on international stages.

Born in 1966 at Mpilo Central Hospital and bred in the dusty streets of Tshabalala, one of the oldest high-density suburbs in the city designed for industrial workers during the Ian Smith regime's reign, Luthuli grew up in a comfortable home with his father having been a teacher and mother a nurse, a rare scenario for black people during the Rhodesian times.

The family migrated to the United Kingdom after Luthuli's father got a job in the foreign land only for Luthuli to return to the City of Kings and Queens to start his primary level education at the fancy Carmel Jewish School, which Luthuli revealed is where the love and passion for acting bloomed.

"I did my primary level at Carmel Primary School and at the age of nine I had my debut performance at the Bulawayo Theatre as I was a lead actor on a school play titled The Baobab Tree. That's how I caught the bug for acting," said Luthuli.

After completing his Ordinary and Advanced Level studies at Christian Brothers College and Anderson College respectively, the former Scandal actor headed back to the United Kingdom to further his studies at Coventry University pursuing a degree in Medical Physics and Physiology among other degrees he holds to date.

Though venturing into the science world, the "perfect English articulator" reveals he still followed his stage performance recalling though he was re-diverted by a tragic incident of a woman he was operating on who died in his hands.

"A patient died on the operation table while we were trying to save her and it took the wind out of me. She was my first and last patient to operate on because after that I took off my white dust coat and stethoscopes for good and turned to the reality I was robbed of in the darkness, acting," said Luthuli.

English Theatre productions like numerous Shakespeare's plays which he was cast on like King Lear, The Merchant of Venice and Romeo and Juliet to mention a few, sharpened Luthuli's creativity which when he turned to television acting in South Africa in 2008, he became the darling of many on the small screens.

"When I arrived in South Africa I turned my career focus and started doing television acting. I have since featured on Generations as Scot, Isidingo, Snitches, The Coconuts which was a sitcom broadcast on M-Net and The Res et al," the businessman said.

As the symbol of growing up "grey hair" almost cursing his head, the 52-year-old father of seven who co-owns the Black Magician productions with Henry MacCarter revealed that he wants to nurture young talent so that when the old folks retire from the acting scene, the young gems would have been fully groomed to stand on their own.

The three productions which include The Deleterious Machismo, Inkabi and the lead epic production Isandlwana, a movie based on the Historic Defeat of the British Army by Zululand's King Cetshwayo, will see its cast dominated with young actors and actresses who will have a chance to rub shoulders with seasoned actors.

"Time is moving and we grow older and older each day. The motive of our productions this year is to give the raw talent a chance to realise its potential. Seasoned and veteran actors, myself included, will groom these youngsters so that when we retire we leave them with something to hold onto," said Luthuli.

Meanwhile, Luthuli said his role on Uzalo would be on-going for the whole year citing that he would be in and out of the storyline.