An actress in South Africa was mobbed by fans who apparently mistook her for a zombie her TV character "died" after going in for an emergency operation.
Some of the 8,1 million fans of the SABC 1's TV drama, Uzalo, were so upset, they apparently mistook the screen death of character Nombuso for a real life event.
Actress and singer Thandeka Zulu also had an unpleasant brush with angry fans when she and her group, Afro Soul, arrived to perform at the Umkhambathini Festival at Nagle Dam near Pietermaritzburg in KZN.
Fans upset over other performers failing to turn up and they took their frustrations out on Thandeka and the group when they arrived by car.
Afro Soul member Sabelo Ngema said: "We picked up that the fans thought we caused the delay and no-shows of other artists.
"Our car was hit by bricks. Luckily we got away with no injuries, but Thandeka was traumatised!"
The next day, after Thandeka had given a performance at Empangeni taxi rank in KZN, she went shopping for shoes.
She was then mobbed by people calling her a zombie. Security guards stepped in to protect her, but while they were escorting Thandeka to her car people crowded around struggling to touch her.
They found it hard to believe she was really alive after the screen death of her Uzalo character, Nombuso, the screen fiancee of character Ayanda Mdletshe.
Starstruck fans shouted: "You are dead. You are a ghost from Uzalo!"
"When did you come back from the dead?"
Fan Deborah Nala said she could not believe her eyes when she saw Thandeka. She just had to touch her to make sure that she was really alive.
"We were all shocked at the taxi rank and followed her to Rage shoe shop to make sure that she was not a zombie. We waited for her while she was shopping, and then security guards were all over her when she came out. They did not want us to touch her. Our hearts were broken," said Deborah.
Thandeka said later she was amazed that some people did not know that her "death" was just acting.
"At first I thought people were following me because they love my character," she said. "I got a bit scared when they kept saying I was a zombie. But this is the price you pay when you are a public figure."
Source - Dailysun
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