‘Gear six from day one’: Umthetho cast lets us in on shooting, building their characters

Since landing on Netflix, Umthetho – the South African drama about a young prosecutor pulled into the prison syndicate run by the brother she thought she’d lost – has struck a nerve with local audiences.

Among the breakout reactions has been the response to Sthembiso SK Khoza’s Zola, a performance that’s won the actor a wave of new fans since the show started streaming.

Ahead of that reception, The Citizen sat down with Khoza, Sindi Dlathu, and Ernest Msibi to talk through how they built their characters, what the shoot demanded of them, and what they hope viewers are still thinking about now that the season is out.

“Kuyafiwa” – finding the show’s version of prison

Sthembiso SK Khoza plays fan-favourite heartthrob Zola in Netflix’s ‘Umthetho’. Picture: Supplied, Mishaal Gangaram for Netflix

Asked what surprised him most about how South Africa’s justice system actually works versus how Umthetho portrays it, Khoza admitted he wasn’t especially clued up on the subject going in.

What struck him, he said, was how the production used the series to take viewers into a version of prison life most South Africans never see up close – including how inmates are treated regardless of sexuality.

“Nasejele nje, sonke sihlangene [Even in jail, we’re all together, no one is separated],” he said, pointing to how the show’s wardrobe choices reflect that inmates are free to be themselves inside, whatever their orientation.

Still, he was clear the show doesn’t soften the system’s harsher realities.

“Kuyafiwa [it’s dangerous],” he said of what audiences ultimately see.

On “gear six” from day one

Sindi Dlathu plays menacing prison warden Agnes Khoza. Picture: Supplied, Mishaal Gangaram for Netflix

Dlathu said the cast couldn’t wrap their minds around the sheer intensity of the story from its very first scenes. Most shows ease audiences in, she explained, building “gear one, gear two, gear three” before ramping up – Umthetho, by contrast, opens on “gear six” and doesn’t let up.

She described the experience as shocking and traumatising, but beautiful too, and said the compressed shoot pushed the cast to find their characters fast rather than easing into them over months of preparation as is the international standard when it comes to production timelines.

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UMTHETHO: for my sanity, they are endgame | a “zoli” stan for life dt: @STHEMBISO KHOZA + @NQOBILE GAMEDZE | #netflixsa #mbaliandzola #foryou #mzanzitiktok

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Khoza backed this up, revealing that the production shot its final episode first, throwing the cast straight into the show’s highest-stakes energy on day one.

Msibi summed up the pace in three words: “Be’siku gear 10” from the very start, voices and all worn thin by the end of it.

A child who liked building bombs

It’s this groundwork that likely explains why Zola has landed so strongly with viewers.

Khoza said building the character started with imagining him as a child – a bright kid who liked building bombs and could easily have ended up in the army’s bomb disposal unit, a path he said isn’t often depicted in South African stories.

Sthembiso SK Khoza plays fan-favourite heartthrob Zola in Netflix’s ‘Umthetho’. Picture: Supplied, Mishaal Gangaram for Netflix

He pointed to the scars written into Zola’s backstory as physical evidence of that unspoken history: proof, he said, that “scars tell a lot of stories that we don’t even have to be loud about.”

Dlathu picked up on the same approach, explaining that Umthetho‘s writers deliberately leave gaps for actors to fill in psychologically – forcing the cast to construct their characters’ childhoods and motivations themselves before they can justify their behaviour as adults.

Msibi said he built Scarra the same way, imagining a troublesome upbringing at school that eventually spiralled into a life shaped by gangsterism.

Khoza drew a parallel to Msibi’s own on-screen history, referencing his role as Chester in Yizo Yizo, and argued that more than two decades behind bars would only harden someone already unafraid of prison.

Ernest Msibi plays Scarra in ‘Umthetho’. Picture: Supplied, Mishaal Gangaram for Netflix

He raised Dlathu’s character, Agness, as a similar case: a woman who loves plants yet commands total control over a male prison – a contradiction, he said, that only makes sense once you accept her ruthlessness had to be built, not born.

What the cast hopes stays with viewers

Asked what he hopes audiences are still sitting with now that they’ve finished the season, Khoza pointed to the production’s decision to write LGBTQ+ characters into the world of the show, arguing that queer people exist in every part of life, prison included, and that South Africa – where same-sex marriage is legal – deserves stories that reflect that.

He also highlighted characters like Zola, who studies while incarcerated in an effort to rebuild his life, and the prison’s hardened warden, as proof the show resists easy stereotypes.

Dlathu, for her part, kept her closing thought characteristically brief: “Well, for me, guys, let’s go to therapy.”

Umthetho is streaming now on Netflix.