Sipho Ndlovu

You see them on TV, now you get to see them in a magazine

We had an opportunity of meeting Sipho online.

Sipho Eric Ndlovu was born on the 26th of January 1986 in Rietspruit. He comes from a small family of 3 sisters. Started primary school at Lehlaka combined school but completed at Nancy Shiba primary school in Witbank. In 2001, he attended Secondary school at Phillip Ndimande Secondary in Witbank.

During his high school moments he lost his mom in 2004 from a car accident. Things started to turn sour and more challenging, because he had to stay alone as his 2 younger sisters were taken by the relatives to go stay at Jane Furse in Limpopo. By then he was in grade 11 and met a friend Rodgers Ndlovu with whom he held hands together and made means for a living.

In 2005, Sipho was doing matric and there was no source of support from his family. He developed suicidal thoughts because he didn’t think there was a way out. Some learners would come with potatoes, packet of soups to hand it to Sipho and sometimes it was embarrassing to see himself going through that. Around May in 2005, his aunt told him to leave school and go look for a job at the mines in Limpopo.

Some of the teachers at Phillip Ndimande didn’t allow Sipho to drop out at grade 12, and suggested him and Rodgers to do odd jobs that could  help with the situation. Things turned to be better but the problem was how to further his studies with no support. Emalahleni Municipality came to the rescue with the registration fee to enrol for BA Communications at the University of Limpopo.

He completed his Degree on a record time in 2008. In 2009 he got an Internship at the Department of Safety, Security and Community Liaison. Things didn’t go well for him as he couldn’t get a permanent job both at Government and at the State Owned Enterprise –SAFCOL.

In 2016 he took a decision to leave Mpumalanga and went to Gauteng to pursue what he dreamed and what he was passionate about. Not even his family supported the idea of acting for TV series. There were issues that could have easily made him to give up and go back to Mpumalanga,but because it was his dream to be on TV, he did whatever he could to achieve that. There is a time where he had to lie to his family in Limpopo, telling them he was arrested and needed a bail of R1000. This was to sustain him in Gauteng till he got his first gig on TV.

Recently he has been on SABC 1 show – "Side Dish Dilemma" playing a role of Zolile. He also did a featured role on International series – "Liberty" a Danish series.  He is playing a role of Jamengaye on a new series coming soon on SABC 1 every Sundays 19h30.

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To our youth, everything is possible and there is no reason to fail to make it.