Youngins' Kealeboga Masango on Buhle's pregnancy shock

Last Friday, Youngins’ disgraced former Head Girl and queen bee Buhle Kunene (Kealeboga Masango) got the rug-pull of the year as she started to suspect that she could be pregnant by her secretly married older ex-lover, Kabelo (Lungile Radebe).

It makes her part of a growing South Africa statistic of one in seven new mothers still being in their teens, 89.7% of those pregnancies being fathered by men between the ages of 20 and 29 years, and the number of teen mothers growing by 17.9% over a four-year period.

But at the same time, she’s just a girl! We asked Kealeboga to take a pregnant pause and unpack how Buhle got here, and how that will impact her decisions around the pregnancy.

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When Kabelo arrived on the scene, what problems was he a solution to, for Buhle?

Losing “it girl” status really did mean a lot to her, because it's been something that she's been planning prior to her entering Matric. Losing that, she had no sense of direction. One thing that I've realised with Buhle is that she's not really great with uncertainty. That's made her spiral, and made her act up the way that she's acting in school, because she's scared of the unknown. Kabelo was the perfect void filler because he seems like he has a bit of status in terms of having money and his own place. He also gave her the idea that he could fund her podcast. So she took it as an opportunity. Like, “Okay, I don't really have to care about the things that used to be very important to me, when I can get those things from him”.

There are just two years difference between Kabelo and Buhle. But is that a bigger gap than it seems?

For where his mindset is at, it is a big gap, especially since she's still in school, because maturity level number one, and number two, she's still trying to figure things out. So he's the last thing that she needs. The intentions that he had prior to getting into this relationship with her weren't honest towards her. He already knew what he wanted. He was blindsiding her and had ill intentions towards her. He took advantage of her vulnerability and was like, “Okay, she's the type of individual to give herself to me to the fullest extent, even if that means not doing the things that she needs to do.” I think he enjoyed that.

What surprised you about teenage pregnancy statistics?

What surprised me was the fact that there's a lot more kids in high school that are getting pregnant each year. The number keeps increasing. And what really intrigued me was the fact that it wasn't the lack of schools actually educating them.

I'm going to speak from experience, though, because when we were in class, I feel like they [weren’t] as authentic as possible. We know the basics, but the moment you get into a relationship, that whole concept flies out of the room because they're now invested, emotionally. If you do have a personal relationship with your partner, how do you instil your boundaries? And if they try to pressure you, you can just walk away. For example, if I'm having sex with someone, I'm going to use a condom, and now he doesn't want to do that? I think we also don't touch on that.

What were your thoughts on the ages of the male partners responsible for teenage pregnancies in South Africa?

That shocked me. That completely shocked me. When I was checking and seeing all of this, it was kind of disappointing that we do have males that target younger girls. Most of the time it's the girls that are pregnant being bashed, instead of the person that impregnated them. So I think it's important, now, that we hold the person accountable. You are much older. What you're doing is very, very wrong, in as much as she is young, and she has no idea of what she's doing. You know exactly what you're doing, and you know what you want. I feel like they just get a slap on the wrist. Something needs to happen in order for them to actually take into account that there's consequences to your actions.

Even before the pregnancy, Buhle has a lot of people telling her that she should have known better. How did she feel when her ex-boyfriend, Khaya (Toka Mtabane), took her aside and told her, “You didn't deserve what he did to you.”?

It was comforting, because deep down, she feels like she's the problem, and that really does play on her mind. She feels like she's not enough. But she'll never show it, because she wants to show that, “I am Buhle F-ing Kunene”. So hearing it come from him was very special to her, because it's like, “I am not at fault in this situation”.

Going into the pregnancy itself, of course, we at first have denial, because there is so much fear. How did you bring Buhle’s fear to life?

I watched a lot of scenes from specific shows to see how they would play that out. And I also searched for documentaries about girls dealing with teenage pregnancy. One thing that really helped me was the fact that I still feel like I'm fresh out of high school! So I just asked myself how I would feel if I was in that situation. I'd be terrified. I would be upset with myself at the same time. I would just not know what to do. So I played on those three aspects. Being pregnant as a teenager, you really have no idea what you're doing. You have no idea how to go about it. You don't know how to speak up. You're not sure if you should. You feel like you need to handle it on your own. But then again, part of you wants to speak to someone.

What helps Buhle to work through fear and denial into acceptance?

It’s the relationship that she has with Tumelo (Lebohang Lephatsoana). He is there for her throughout this experience. He helps her think clearly and to really make sure that she's making the best decision for her, and to really express all of these emotions.

And there's this beautiful conversation that you guys will see with Miss Pearl (Keneilwe Matidze). This is the first moment where people will actually get to understand that the facade has dropped, and Buhle really does need that support. She really is trying to figure things out. She's not as perfect as she says that she is. She's human. That was so beautiful to play out. I was like, “This is so opposite. This means that she's at her tipping point to express all of this, especially to Miss Pearl.”

Buhle has already damaged her relationships with the school and with her parents by skipping class to be with Kabelo, and trying to drop out. How will her awareness of that impact how she handles the pregnancy?

That's just made her want to keep more secrets. Also with Season 2, there was a scene where you could see that Buhle’s father sleeps with other individuals within the church, and I think her trust level started falling from there, because the mother has an idea of all of this going on! She tried so hard to fight for her mother, and also speak to her dad and be like, “Dude, what you're doing is not right”. It's a thing of, “How am I going to be able to be honest with you guys when you guys aren't honest with yourselves?”. She feels like, “I can't really express anything. I have to deal with everything on my own.”

In Season 1, Zintle (Lihle Ngubo) died following a backstreet abortion after getting pregnant by an older man, and Buhle experienced Zintle’s parents wailing in her face with this devastating grief. How is that going to impact the choices she makes?

There's a beautiful phone call that's still going to happen, where she speaks to her father. And the reference behind it is actually that situation. So she makes a lot of reference in her head to that. And she really takes it into account. I don't want give any spoilers, but, yeah, basically she does make reference to that situation.

When she reaches out to Kabelo about the pregnancy, what is she expecting?

I don't think she's hoping for anything! It's the thing of, “You just need to know that this is the situation. I don't care if you're not involved. I don't care if you are. Of course, I'd like for you to be involved, because it takes two to tango.” But for her, it's just to say it out loud for the first time: this is what I'm doing, and I'm sure of it. It's like her reassuring herself that okay, I'm actually doing this.

What are the other major factors impacting her choices?

It's not just something where she just wakes up and she's like, “Okay, this is what I want to do”. She bases it off of the support system that she has. She bases it off, “This is my body, this is my choice, and I want to do what feels right for me.” And as much as she's really had her friends try to give her sound advice, and as much as she's taking it into account, she makes the decision for her, and she takes her time with it.

Keep watching, Youngins fans, because Buhle’s decisions are set to have a massive impact on the growing student battle under Principal Ramathuba’s (Simo Magwaza) reign of terror.