Duke Ngcobo (Carlo Radebe) is dead. Really. At last the long-standing villain in e.tv's soap Backstage was declared dead after literally biting the bullet in a very Agatha Christie rip-off scene in which his nightclub was plunged into darkness and, when the lights came on, the bad boy had gone down - for good!
And, we are assured by the production company, the once harder-to-kill-than-a-cockroach thug will not return in a shower sequence, nor, we pray, as an identical twin or demon spirit. Still, with soaps, you never know.
So, whodunnit? Having had the charm of an electric eel and the personality of a mass murderer, Duke had many enemies but let's look the key suspects.
The current main suspect is film lecturer Mpumi, who recently confessed to the crime. He's presently a puppy after the bone of fellow teacher Katlego's love, though in days gone by the scene was reversed, with the then-formidable Katlego the one with eyes filled with love and ears ringing with wedding bells.
Still, times change and Mpumi now drags his unrequited love for the woman around like a leg that's fallen asleep. So much so that in a moment of butchness he stormed off to shout at Duke about doing Katlego wrong.
Could love have driven the normally mild-mannered teacher to murder - or did he simply detest Duke enough to send him to the next world for the hell of it? And, did he confess simply to cover for the love of his life who he thinks did the deed?
After Duke turned Katlego into a battered wife, most people would believe his spousal trophy would be first to be scrubbing the gunshot residue off her hands. After all, now a tired and emotional drunk, revenge might taste better to her than booze and it could've been worth doing to become the respected teacher and friend she once was. Or will she end up rotting in a jail for killing Duke?
In the game of clue(do)s to Duke's killers, it could have been either one of the mother/son act of Zinzi and Duma Mzamo; in the club with a gun.
After all, thanks to Duke this wimpy pair has a dead father and husband (Peter) as a motive for offing the gangster slime. Others include Duke's terrorising them - and kidnapping Duma - in order to get back the blood-soaked illicit diamonds they nicked from him.
Unlikely though, as this unscrupulous pair are more the: ooh, I could ruin my nails holding that gun (Zinzi) or: I can't, I have the gonads of a eunuch (Duma) type. No. They were more likely to have left the blood-letting to Mike one beating short of being a thug Jennings.
Duke's former henchman, Jennings is the kind of guy who smiles his chubby, aging boy smirk at anyone he can profit from while muttering through his back teeth at the injustice of having to play lackey to the assorted scum of the Earth he's has to associate with for a living.
He appears to have the hots for the equally responsive (read: hornier by the day) Zinzi, much to the disgust of her boring son Duma, a Keanu one-facial expression Reeves clone, disturbingly protective of his mum (did I hear someone say, Oedipus complex?).
While not the sort of dude to bite the hand that slaps him for a living (unless there's a back-up gangster in the wings), Mike might have planned Duke's sell-by date to get a share of the dirty diamonds and a role in the designer hay with Zinzi.
Another contender in the Who stopped Duke's ticker ticking contest is Ipeleng, the college principal. She's tiny but as deadly serious about her work as Robbie Williams's attempts to make the world give a bugger about his sexual preferences.
Ipeleng takes no lip from anyone but, like any good box of chocs, she has a soft centre. These weaknesses are spent on her buddy Katlego. But, can cast-iron friendship put one buddy's finger on a trigger to rescue the dignity of another?
Duke's corrupt business partner Moloi had reason to take him out, and, last but not least, yet another Ngcobo adversary, Venter, came out of jail with pain-infliction in his heart and possibly Duke's demise on his post prison things to do list.
E-mail Kim at [email protected] with your choice of suspects and why you think it was them who killed Duke.
Fact file
Carlo Radebe (33) has been with Backstage since February 2002. In that time he has owned the role of Duke, infusing it with his own eccentric interpretation. (His role models are John Hurt and Forest Whitaker and his favourite movie scene is the opening sequence of 2001: A Space Odyssey).
Carlo says that playing Duke is an evolutionary process - a work in progress. He got his first job as an actor when he was 10. After matriculating from Johannesburg's Sacred Heart College, he studied drama at the Pretoria Technikon.
Asked if he identified with Duke, Carlo said: At school, I was a loner like Duke. Then, one day I grew up and I transferred all those pent-up emotions into an acting career - and Duke.
Did Carlo believe there were viewers who were unable to separate his sinister screen role from reality? Sometimes viewers have blurred reality, ... and it's always best to walk away if things get nasty, but even this can be considered stuck-up', so you can't win every time.
However, there are good people out there who make all of us in the public eye realise what a privilege our careers are and what they mean to our viewers.