Sometimes the adrenaline rush from a movie can make you feel like you are part of it.
The high-speed car chase, the gun fights and the explosions that keep you on the edge of your seat can be exhilarating.
Mfana Sithebe (45) remembers this feeling well. Chow Yun-Fat’s Bulletproof Monk was the movie that gave him that rush, 20 years back.
He and his boys felt that adrenaline rush and sat in the parking lot to discuss all the captivating scenes they had just watched.
One thing led to another, and before he knew it, he had snorted his first line of cocaine. It was just one line, what could go wrong? Everything went wrong and he ended up being hooked on drugs for ten years.
He is now ten years clean and recently worked as a language adviser for Mandoza’s biopic, Nkalakatha: The Life of Mandoza.
He says his journey to sobriety wasn’t easy, and needed someone to tell him how bad he looks for him to change his ways.
“The first time I did my first line I was with Mandoza. It is funny because I was that guy who always made bad comments about drugs.”
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He was one of Mandoza’s dancers while the kwaito icon’s road to stardom was at its peak. They would travel to different provinces and have more than five gigs per night. Some of his colleagues would use the drugs to keep going.
When he finally gave in and used drugs, he felt the energy.
“The first time took drugs, I couldn’t sleep, and then it made sense why they were using. At least that is the lie that validated me getting into this dark hole.”
Mfana tells Drum this was the beginning of a long journey and that being a father of seven kids years later, he needed to change.
The first time he had his own cocaine experience was when the late icon got his first million rands after the release of his second album, Nkalakatha
“We were not on speaking terms at the time because I felt he was underpaying me. Mandoza was still living in Randburg, he called me and told me that I could move in at his home, there is a cottage that I could settle in. Amid the conversation, he got a message that he had half a million in his account, and 30 minutes later, another call that another half a million was in his account. Went out to celebrate.”
He says they went to watch the Bulletproof Monk and after the movie at the parking, they were still dissecting the movie when the drug was taken out and some did their thing.
“I always told them that these are the things that make people from ekasi look like idiots. I always fought, and I ended up being a junkie. After they did their thing, he suggested that we go to Sandton City. I was drunk, and I thought let me not bore the guys anymore, so I asked to taste this thing of theirs that they always rave about, that is when I entered the gates of hell.
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“I snorted my first line, and I couldn’t feel anything. I went to the cottage and smoked a whole pack of cigarettes because I couldn’t sleep. While I was moving up and down the cottage Mandoza was watching me from his window the way he was so sneaky. He then came to ask what was happening, I told him I couldn’t sleep, and he suggested that we go out to party. We went to a club, and from there on it was my thing until I became a junkie.”
He says the drug gave him a feeling that he has never felt before and he became loyal to that feeling. Even when he went back home, he would make sure that he buys it, so that he can be able to have fun.
“I knew that I had to stop. People from ekasi would always tell my kids that I used to be Mandoza’s friend and now I am a junkie. I was a laughingstock, but I didn’t care because I was high half of the time. I have never overdosed or run short of drugs and that is why it was difficult to get out. One day in 2013, I was on my way home from buying a bag. I met this lady from my street, who asked me when was the last time I looked at myself in the mirror and she told me looked bad and I should change my ways. I went home and looked myself in the mirror, I was hurt that I had to apologise to myself.”
He says he changed his way and never looked back.
“I am off drugs. And I am proud of myself. I have been working at a construction when that contract ended, Mpho called me to be part of the biopic. I had to relive some moments, I often went out to cry and think of all the things we have been through. We have lived, and I am glad that I got to be part of the biopic.”
