''Isidingo'' is a South African

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

, with dialogue mostly in English and

isiXhosa Xhosa (, ) also isiXhosa as an endonym, is a Nguni language and one of the official languages of South Africa and Zimbabwe. Xhosa is spoken as a first language by approximately 8.2 million people and by another 11 million as a secon ...

. The series premiered on

SABC 3 SABC 3 (stylised as S3) is a South African free-to-air public television network owned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). It carries programming in English and, few in other South African languages. It has a number of its own re ...

in July 1998 and was broadcast evenings on SABC 3 from Monday to Friday at 19:00. Until 2001 it was titled ''Isidingo: The Need''. Created by

Gray Hofmeyr Gray Hofmeyr (born 6 February 1949 in Cape Town, South Africa) is a South African film and television director. In a career that spans almost three decades, Hofmeyr's films have touched many themes and genres. Biography Gray Hofmeyr is cons ...

, the story is loosely based on another popular soap opera created by Hofmeyr, ''The Villagers'', that was broadcast during the

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

era in South Africa. Former series Head Writers include Neil McCarthy, Mitzi Booysen, Ilse van Hermert, Christian Blomkamp, Busisiwe Ntintili, Loyiso Maqoma, Liam J Stratton, Rosalind Butler, Rohan Dickson,

Bongi Ndaba Bongi Ndaba (born 10 February 1972) is a South African producer and writer for television, as well as an actress and playwright. From 2012 to 2014 she was the head writer and co-producer for the South African soap opera ''Generations'', havin ...

, and Duduzile Zamantungwa Mabaso. On 29 November 2019 the SABC announced that the production had been cancelled, with the final broadcast being aired on 12 March 2020.

Premise

The main characters include the Haines family, the Matabanes, Vusi Moletsane the mine manager and the various residents of the boarding house owned by Maggie Webster. Barker Haines, owner of ON TV, is a high-living billionaire who often schemes his way into the lives of various people in and out of the

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

town Horizon Deep, notably his daughter Leone. The Matabanes are a close-knit family who comprise a stronghold, of sorts, in the populace of Horizon Deep, with Zebedee as the patriarch. Other central characters are Lolly De Klerk, Frank Xavier, Parsons Matibane, Georgie Zamdela and Calvin Xavier.

List of characters

Notable former characters

Major character exits

Actress Michelle Botes, who had played villainess Cherel De Villiers since ''Isidingos 1998 debut, announced her imminent departure from the series in October 2006, a week after being "snubbed" by The South African Television Awards (though ''Isidingo'' had taken home the most awards). Botes next portrayed Ingrid in the rival soap '' Binnelanders'', which directly competed with ''Isidingo'' on the pay-channel

M-Net M-Net (an abbreviation of Electronic Media Network) is a South African pay television channel established by Naspers in 1986. The channel broadcasts both local and international programming, including general entertainment, children's series, ...

. She returned to ''Isidingo'' from 2010 to 2013. Soon after winning the Best Actress Award at the South African Film and Television Awards for her portrayal of Leone "Lee" Haines, 32-year-old actress

Ashley Callie Ashley Callie (30 December 1976 – 15 February 2008) was a South African actress, best known for her role as Leone Haines in ''Isidingo'' (2000–08). She died on 15 February 2008, as a result of head injuries from a head-on car collision in ...

died following a car accident in February 2008. The role was not recast, and the character was written out by having Lee gone missing as she didn't show up for work, and later revealed she had died in a deserted field without specifying her cause of death. Six months after Callie's death, the series killed off original character Letti Matabane (played by actress Lesego Motsepe) in a similar car accident, prompting a "nationwide outpouring of grief".

Legacy

''Isidingo'' was the first South African TV show to feature a gay kiss, which saw the characters Steve and Len kiss. It also made history when it screened the first gay wedding on South African television when the characters Steve and Luke wed. This episode was broadcast just days after

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...

was legalised in South Africa in 2006. The show's executive producer Pumla Hopa explained how ''Isidingo'' was different from other soapies at the time: "The thing that sets us apart is that we deal with issues in society from homosexuality,

xenophobia Xenophobia () is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression of perceived conflict between an in-group and out-group and may manifest in suspicion by the one of the other's activities, a ...

, mixed marriages and HIV-Aids. We introduced a different style of storytelling".

References

External links

* * {{IMDb name, 0373543
TVSA's ''Isidingo'' siteIsidingo
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Demand Africa
1998 South African television series debuts 2020 South African television series endings 1990s South African television series 2000s South African television series 2010s South African television series 2020s South African television series SABC 3 original programming South African television soap operas