“Regaining my voice has been the most empowering part of my story.”
Many people think children are too young to truly feel the pain of losing someone they love, but actress Lethabo Mekoa knows that heartbreak can arrive early and settle deep.
She was only 9 years old when her beloved grandfather passed away — the one person who made her feel truly loved, safe and understood. His death broke her small heart wide open and left her feeling empty, pushing her into a very quiet place. Detached and simply quiet.
After he died, Lethabo pulled away from the world. She kept to herself, carrying a heavy sadness she didn’t yet have the words to explain. That loss changed her childhood, dimming her spark and making her feel she had to protect her heart from more pain.
Just when it felt like she was losing herself at the very beginning of her life, acting came in and saved her. It gave her a place to feel free — to move, speak, cry, and release feelings she had kept locked up for so long. Through acting, Lethabo found her voice again. Literally.
“Through acting, I got to release the hurt, the anger and also release him,” she said.
Her grandfather spoke of acting years before the creative child could understand what it meant. He would dream aloud about seeing her on the small screen, not knowing that those prophetic words would pave the way for her to win an acting award, to grace the screens of one of Mzansi’s biggest prime-time shows, and to land a role in the award‑winning short film Balaclava.
In Balaclava, the thespian plays Maya, a young girl raised by her abusive priest father. While the neighbourhood reveres him as a community hero, Maya and her mother live with the opposite truth — fear, hurt, and harm behind closed doors.
The mute film challenged her in ways she never foresaw, but in those charged moments of silence — letting her whole body tell the story — she stretched herself as an artist.
Back home, Lethabo was raised in Shoshanguve. Her mom hails from North West and her dad’s family home is in Mpumalanga, but she grew up with her grandparents in what she lovingly calls a “full house.”
“I think the only people who were not there were the parents but from cousins to siblings, we all lived under one roof and were cared for by our grandparents. The loss of my grandfather shifted the dynamic; everything changed. We started growing distant,” she says, praising her grandmother for trying to hold everyone together.
That gradual separation dealt a second blow and pushed her even deeper into silence.
“I was scared of the inevitable, that we will grow and chart our own paths. But losing my grandmother planted a deep seed of fear; the fear of losing others and myself.
“Acting sort of shook me back into reality. Into feeling again, living and dreaming. It forced me to see people, to see myself, to acknowledge my surroundings, and to acknowledge my hurts in order to heal.”
Her theatre days began in grade 5 community programmes, where she tried her hand at all things artsy — modelling, music, and more.
Her tenure on Skeem Saam changed her life in ways that still leave her in awe to this day.
With everything that has happened in her very young life, Lethabo Mekoa’s life and journey stand as a tender testament that everyone’s story is valid.
“I know people look at others’s stories and might disregard theirs, but trust me, every story is valid. My timing and your timing are not the same.
“I have also been empowered once again to realise that my voice matters. Coming from a grief-stricken past that threw me into disarray, regaining my voice has been the most empowering part of my story. I don’t wait for permission to be great anymore, but I believe it and live it out now,” she shares.
The star is also the proud ambassador for Honor and has taken her career to greater heights as a travel and lifestyle influencer. Something she also prides herself in.
“Influencing has a bigger purpose for me: to show that you don’t always have to show up dressed.”
With her budding career that has many faces, she acknowledges that at times thoughts of doubt do creep in – remnants of her past – but has to remind herself of how much she had to overcome to get to now.
The star will be shooting a new film that will be revealed in due time and is co-directing another short film while she is also advancing her work via her foundation, work that aims to uplift her community, focusing on education and social development.
“I am building something that is truly special and I just hope that my work, whether on screen or otherwise, touches lives in a way that makes real change,” she said.
