Lifeguard finds his stage legs

Published Jun 23, 2015

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A lifeguard by day and a movie star by night, Sihle Xaba is as comfortable running on Durban’s beaches as he is strutting the red carpet.

The 38-year-old who stars in Ayanda, the opening night film of the Durban International Film Festival (Diff) next month, said his love for the water was what had led him into acting.

While body boarding on a Durban beach more than 10 years ago, he caught the attention of award winning film and television director and producer, Sara Blecher.

“I thought she was just curious about this black boy ripping the waves. I told her my story and how most of the lifeguards on the beach came from Lamontville,” said Xaba. These stories eventually led to the SABC 1 series Bay of Plenty.

“Meshack Mavuso suggested I audition and I surprised everyone, including myself,” said Xaba. He was originally meant to be a stunt double for scenes in the sea.

Speaking to the Daily News last week on the very beach he shot his first scene, Xaba said he was proud to be“born and bred” in the Durban south township.

He initially joined the swimming club at the municipal pool in Lamontville because members were allowed to swim even when the pool was closed to the public.

Under the mentorship of Thembinkosi Mzobe, Mxolisi “Juba” and Risky Gumede, and head coaches Sthembiso Madiya and Xolani Msimang, Xaba took to swimming with ease.

He was already an avid sportsman having done karate, kung fu, boxing and ballroom dancing at the community hall next door to the pool.

“I absolutely fell in love with the water, when I was swimming, nothing else mattered,” he said.

The self confessed “mama’s boy” is the only child of a single mother, Nomandla Xaba, whose name is tattooed on his right arm.

He said sport kept him away from the political troubles and criminal activities other boys were involved in at the time.

He would relive this turmoil as Mandla in Blecher’s first feature film, Otelo Burning, which opened Diff in 2011.

“In a way that was my story. I lived through the political violence and found an escape and freedom in swimming, even though my mother and grandmother feared I would drown. At that time, black people and water didn’t mix.”

He recalled how he would sneak into his house and quickly moisturise his water-dried skin with Vaseline before greeting his mother so she would not know he had been swimming.

“It was worse when I started training to be a lifeguard in the sea. There was a myth that, if you went too far out, the water would swallow you and you’d never be seen again. But we went in day after day and came out fine, the myth was washed away,” Xaba said.

His portrayal of Mandla in the multi-award winning Otelo Burning earned him a nomination for Best Young/Promising Actor at the Africa Movie Academy Awards in Nigeria in 2012.

He credits Blecher who, “makes you feel at ease when she is directing”, and fellow cast members Thomas Gumede and Jafta Mamabolo.

“Those guys are like my brothers. We reunited in Ayanda which was great, we were just missing Tshepang (Mohlomi) who is so amazingly talented,” he smiles.

This was his favourite character to play as it was a challenge, said Xaba.

“Mandla was not a nice guy. Neither is Sifiso in Ayanda, he’s a cold-hearted, corrupt cop. These characters were a challenge since they are nothing like me, and I love a challenge.”

The man who Xaba refers to as his “dad” agrees. Durban academic and activist, Crispin Hemson, introduced Xaba and other development swimmers and lifeguards to body boarding as teenagers in the 1990s.

“He is charismatic and soft hearted. I had seen a lot of people from his kind of background give up after hitting an obstacle. Sihle just took off, charging ahead to break through,” Hemson said.

Being black in a “white sport” Xaba could have given up.

The city eventually employed him permanently as a lifeguard, giving him financial stability so his sons Lwandile, Andile, Trevor and Ethan, would never have to study on an empty stomach or walk to school as he did, to Wentworth as a child.

He would go to work and go home to his mother in Lamontville during the week and body board while staying at his “dad” Hemson’s at the weekend.

“He took me under his wing and even helped with some of the challenges at home, Crispin is a real angel. He motivated me until I got so good I got to represent South Africa in the World Surfing Games Portugal.”

There, he proved to those who labelled him a token affirmative action competitor that he deserved South African colours by placing third.

He still enjoys a sponsorship from Surf HQ and Bad Boy as well as Thiel Board Co which is owned by body boarding champion Billy Thiel.

They connected during a “dream trip” to Hawaii which was organised by Hemson.

Body boarding and lifesaving are his passion. “But the acting bug bit me hard,” he laughs.

Xaba has three more series credits under his belt having appeared in Tshisa, Intersexions and Fallen.

He also starred in the short film The Puzzle, an international production Blood and Oil, Luthando which is currently screening on Mzansi Magic and has recently finished shooting BreakPoint for Durban Motion Pictures.

All this while working full-time and competing.

He and Sandile Shange won the men’s board rescue clash in their age group at the 2015 South African Masters Surf Lifesaving Championships held in Durban in April.

“If I make my mom and kids happy, I will have fulfilled my first mission in life.

“Second is making my community proud, showing that a boy from Lamontville can save lives and be on TV or the big screen.

“I am proof that Durban has so much to offer, there is so much talent here. Look at me, working with people like Terry Pheto (co-producer of Ayanda), it gives me goose bumps,” Xaba said.

Ayanda premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival on Saturday, June 13, and received a special mention in the world fiction category. After its screening at Diff, it will be released in local cinemas on August 28.

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