Veteran Cape Town-born actress Vinette Ebrahim is a woman on a mission to tackle pay inequalities in the entertainment industry
As we celebrate Heritage Month and the country’s rich tapestry of people, languages and cultures, Weekend Argus will focus on stalwarts who have made a major contribution to their industry. Ebrahim has made a notable contribution to the arts, which is an important part of cultural heritage.
Throughout her acting career, spanning more than four decades, Ebrahim has appeared in numerous theatre productions locally and internationally. She has a notable role as lead in the stage play My Naam/Name is Ellen Pakkies.
Ebrahim was well known for her role as Charmaine Meintjies in the popular TV soapie 7de Laan and when the character was cut in 2019 many fans were heartbroken.
Ebrahim, 67, would love to move back to Cape Town where she grew up. But she is not ready to retire just yet.
“I’m from Claremont in Cape Town and would love to go back, but for now I’m still in Johannesburg,” she said, admitting that the City of Gold is where the money is.
“I’m not in a position where I can sit back and go on with life as normal without working ... I take on any and all of the jobs offered to me.”
And when she does return to the Mother City she not only wants to empower up-and-coming actors living on the Cape Flats but to tackle gender inequalities plaguing the industry.
“They still pay me the same as, let’s say, 10 years ago,” she said. “I’m worth much more than that and so are my peers... I will take hands with anyone supporting my stance, something needs to be done.”
The mother of two bid farewell to the cast of the M-Net telenovela, Legacy, in February.
“Although my role in Legacy was not big, I still enjoyed working with them.”
Nothing, according to Ebrahim, lasts forever.
“Work comes and work goes, it’s part of the industry.”
Ebrahim, a Naledi Theatre Award winner, had joined the 7de Laan cast in the year 2000.
“In my head Charmaine does no longer exist and I made peace with that ... A lot of people still call me Charmaine, especially in the shops.”
In 2013 she bagged the Naledi Theatre Award for best performance in My Naam/Name is Ellen Pakkies.
The play tells the real-life story of a South African woman convicted of killing her drug-addicted son after enduring years of abuse.
In 2020, she portrayed the role of Aisha Davids in the Muslim Afrikaaps film Barakat.
Ebrahim has also written a myriad of plays, including Die Ongelooflike Reis van Max en Lola.
She based the play in part on her long-time friendship with South African actor Chris van Niekerk.
Ebrahim said that during the apartheid era, Van Niekerk would attend one cinema, while she attended another, and "then we'd come together and act out what we just watched“.
At the Klein Karoo festival in 2016, she performed in Invisible, another play she authored in English and Afrikaans.
In Invisible, she portrayed a homeless woman who was once a resident of Cape Town's District Six.
Ebrahim has also created a one-woman show about her life, Let's Spice It Up, which she has performed in Afrikaans and English throughout South Africa as part of National Women's Day celebrations.
Weekend Argus.