Sonia Mbele Details Her Tough Childhood Growing Up Poor. We often see celebs living the soft life on social media, forgetting how some of them came from humble beginnings. Actress and TV producer Sonia Mbele was a guest on Podcast And Chill with MacG where she gave the chillers an interview to remember. The actress spoke about many things including her time on Generation, and how her love for producing began.
The DiepCity actress also opened up about her upbringing and growing up in a disadvantaged environment. Sonia shared that after her father passed away when she was 15 years old, she lived with her mother who lost job and stayed unemployed for years after that. This then encouraged Sonia to work hard and live by the motto that says “If it is to be, it is up to me”.
” I grew up very poor, my mom was unemployed at some point for years. She was supposed to transfer to Pretoria back to Ekhurueni. Was born in Ekhuruleni, we moved to Pretoria at some point and when she came back she couldn’t find a gig for years” she said.
After completing high school, Sonia could not afford fees to go to University. Mbele then received help at the local shop to put together a small CV and landed a job at Thruworths in the Johannesburg CBD. Sonia’s first job was to fold jeans at the clothing department but with hard work, she was then promoted to the fitting room and finally the make up counter.
The award winning actress shares memories of regularly going home on an empty stomach with no food at home and having spread one bag of potatoes through the week, relying on her creativity to make different meals out of the potatoes.
“We would buy a bag of potatoes and you must make it work the whole week, Monday it will be mash. Tuesday, we wedge it, Wednesday we’d put tomatoes and a little onion in it. Like we’d live on that bag of potatoes.” Mbele said.
When Sonia began her career as an actress, she first appeared on Tv commercials before booking her first acting gig. Her passion has now grown into becoming a TV producer and has produced many popular shows on TV including Pastors Wives, Real Housewives Of Johannesburg and many more.