Manaka Ranaka and Thuli Phongolo get along very well.
The actresses, who play Lucy and Namhla on Generations: The Legacy respectively, recently visited CliffCentral, where they spoke about the show, their roles, and their relationship with each other.
Manaka told Arye Kellman that Thuli sometimes treats her like her real mother: "There's certain things that she hasn't opened up to me about, but we're cool like that. I don't wanna force myself on Thuli, and I don't wanna say she's a newbie, she knows the camera and the camera knows her very well. And we give each other space, we're not on each other's throats and we give each other time to misss each other."
Manaka, who plays an ex-convict, said a lot of people can relate to her charatcer: "I think for the first time the mothers of the skhothanes get to see themselevs for real. I don't think they've really seen themselves the way that I, or probably, Brenda Ngxoli, would have portrayed a character like Lucy. I think for the first time in the country, and to my surprise, they actually fell in love with Lucy, and I was expecting so much hate and flack... I feel like a lot of people are relating, or they can see someone they know in this character, because I know plenty of Lucys."
Speaking about Namhla, Thuli said: "For me it opens a platform for discussion with real issues that we go through. I know with the Mr Sokhulu story, the pregnancy... It has allowed people to like tackle those issues on social networks"