She’s the kind of aunty you do not want to cross because she is so scary. But deep down, most people may wish they had the courage to speak their minds like she does.
Ntombekhaya Tsako (62) has earned her place in the hearts of many South Africans, as the beloved Sis Pinky.
Her voice is used on many social media skits. One of her most famous one is the one where she is calling out her boyfriend Khulile for lying to her. She reads him for filth, talking about how he should be ashamed of himself for trying to deceive her.
She speaks to Drum as she is trying to get overalls printers for some of her staff members who have a job lined in Gqeberha.
“That voicenote to Khulile is so old, it is from 2019. I cannot believe that people are still using it,” she laughs.
“I was furious with him. I couldn't believe how he was behaving.”
She says after that audio went viral, she didn’t think much of it.
“Moshe Ndiki’s mom is my friend, and she always said I have a hidden talent somewhere, even though we could not pinpoint it. I then somehow found myself making these videos and people loving them.
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“I realised that the things I say have a lot of impact and people respond to them. So, I cannot worry myself about what other old people say about me. I don’t know what oo Sis Zomzi do in their houses at night. That means I cannot be judged by simply airing my views about certain topics. I am just speaking my mind and living my life."
In one of her latest videos, she is addressing her agemates who are now expecting their children to rebuild family homes.
“Bubuxelengu (it is crass). I cannot at my retirement age, expect my children to fix my home which I failed to build up when I was working. I should have used the money I earned from the Ciskei government to fix the house instead of the children.
“These kids should not be burdened with the responsibility of building homes. They should be building their careers and starting their own families.”
She is the same woman behind the clip saying young women should not be wearing pumps and flat shoes on Mondays.
"Hayi noko, not on Mondays. On Mondays you can wear heels, then you can mix during the week."
She says some of her ideas for videos come at odd hours of the night.
“When I think of things even in the early hours of the morning, I write them down on a notepad on my bedside, because you know oo Getrude, we forget things. Then in the morning I record them.”
Besides the fame, she does not benefit from social media.
“I do not even know how people get paid for this. It started really small for me and now I have a big following. For my 60th birthday in 2020, I asked people to donate school shoes instead of giving me gifts and that earned me more followers.
“I am grateful that through my voice and platform, I am able to help people. There is a woman who now has an ID, another has a house because I heard of their stories, and I reached out to the relevant people and they got the help."
But who is Sis Pinky?
She is the first born of four children and back in the day she used to work for the Ciskei government in the department of agriculture for about 15 years.
“Then my dad asked me to run his bottle store in 1989 and I went to government in the agricultural bank." After she left working for the state in 1996, she opened her own cleaning company in 2000. She has worked for herself since then.
“I do not see myself working for anyone ever again.”
“I got married in 1990, but by 1994 I already knew I was tired of him. But I was busy with election things for the ANC. I knew I was not the type for marriage, but I was under pressure because I wanted two children from one man. And things happened exactly the way I wanted them to. I wanted a boy and a girl.
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“God doesn’t usually disappoint me because he knows I get mad at him and I don’t even go to church once he disappoints me. It was our first election and we were busy, but I was really too busy to divorce him. And then we got divorced in 1995.
“He divorced me when he found out I had a boyfriend. I asked him how he thought I wouldn’t have a boyfriend when we were not living together. I stopped living with him, late 1994, after elections. He filed for divorce, after I signed the papers he said he was playing, I told him we do not play like that and that he had in fact helped me. By the time he died, we were friends, there was no bad blood.”
Two children were born from the marriage.
“My son was born in 1990 and he got married last year kwi wedding yomhlaba (wedding of the year), google it, it was here in East London.
“Then my daughter, I doubt she’ll ever get married, I don’t know. She was born in 1993.”
She is happy about having a daughter-in-law.
“But shame, I can see she is under pressure because she can see umama ngu sisi we dyuwish (mother -in-law is a woman of style).”
