Luyanda Zuma: The new It-girl

SowetanLIVE

2 days ago

'When she steps into the story, she steps in as a very naive girl, but very strong as well,' Zuma offers, without giving away spoilers. 'She is not interested in marriage because she sees herself as the Mkabayi [Dawn Thandeka King] of her generation. She goes through so much that South Africa will just feel for her. Her story brings in a different element of Shaka. She changes the narrative about what we have always read, that Shaka is this strong soldier, unbreakable and dehumanised. Liyana's character comes in to bring out his human side and vulnerability.'
Zuma sees being on the show as a full-circle moment. She remembers taking a tour of the Shaka iLembe set during a visit to the Cradle of Humankind when she was a Miss SA finalist in 2022. She felt like she was home. Zuma has again entered Miss SA this year.
'I was in a bad space in 2022; I was coming from a heavy relationship. People would watch Crown Chasers [Miss SA reality TV show] and be concerned about me because I was always crying,' she says. 'Mentally, I was not there. I was in a space [where I] needed comfort more than competition. I learnt that you need to block out the noise and chase your dream. The one thing that was constantly on my mind cost me my dream.'
She credits Miss SA Teen 2011 Celeste Khumalo as her biggest inspiration for entering beauty pageants.
'My brother was going crazy over her the night she won. I looked at her and thought we looked similar; she's just as skinny as me,' Zuma says. 'Then, when I started researching Miss SA and what it stood for with all its pillars, I realised I was the right fit.'
While she's one of the most beautiful women in the world right now, growing up in Pietermaritzburg she didn't fit in or connect with her feminine side.
'I was a tomboy and that energy came from the fact that I didn't feel beautiful,' she says. 'I looked like my dad and puberty had not kicked in yet, so I had very masculine features. I wasn't deemed feminine enough because puberty hit later and all my friends started to get their boobs; I didn't get that until later in high school.'
In grade 9 she fell in love with drama. She later studied live performance at Afda and never looked back. 'In my second year, my lecturer wanted to kick me out of my live-performance class because she felt I had a director's eye,' she says. 'But I insisted that I wanted to learn performance. I respect the craft so much — I would like others to respect us for studying it too.'