Skeem Saam actor Gift Mokhampanyane speaks on having an absentee father
By Purity Lisa on November 14, 2018
Gift Mokhampanyane recently spoke about how he felt growing up with an absentee father.
“It made me feel like my father was paying me to be his son.”
Gift plays Fanie Maserumule in the popular soapie talked of how he grew up with a father who was in and out of his life, and some time even stopped showing up, making him grow up fatherless.
“I am part of the statistics I guess; I am one of those young men who grew up without a father.
“It has really impacted me a lot. I sometimes wonder how my life would have turned out had he been a constant fixture in my life.”
For him, it was always a struggle even with his father’s family who preferred his other family.
“It was a constant struggle for my mom to ingratiate me into his family. She was never allowed in his family home but she would always drop me off to visit over weekends and school holidays.
“He also didn’t help her much financially to look after me. It reached a point for her when she had no other recourse but to take him to court.
“When he finally paid for maintenance, which was an inconsistent R400 that would occasionally trickle down to R200, my mother would insist that he spend time with me and not just support me financially.
“Initially he tried. He would pick me up for outings and buy me clothes and take me to Chicken Licken.
“Then when I joined the Soul Buddyz [children’s educational TV programme] cast in grade 9, he stopped maintaining me or showing up. I guess he thought I was rolling in money now that I was on TV.”
The last time Gift saw his father, was when he was in hospital.
“I was in grade 10 and had to have a delicate operation. I woke up from surgery and I saw him. He said he had ‘heard that you were dying’ and he came to check up on me. That was the last time he showed face in my life.
“My message to all who are going through that experience is that if I could overcome the rejection, you certainly can.”
