A Park Station Bench Before a Soap Opera Role

John Morapama is a South African actor who plays Lerumo Mojalefa in the television drama Muvhango. In an interview with Channel24 in 2015, he talked about how he began his acting career after moving to Johannesburg.

When he first arrived in the city, he had no home and no friends. For several weeks he slept on a bench at Park Station. In his third week there, he woke up to find that all of his bags and belongings had been stolen.

The report does not say what he did next or how he found somewhere to live. It records that he later won a role in the play Township Boy.

Morapama was also frank about how hard the acting industry can be financially. He said that actors are celebrated, but have nothing to show for it, and he argued that without proper government support and regulation, acting work alone does not cover his living costs. He drew a contrast between himself and his character: one major difference between him and Lerumo Mojalefa in Muvhango, he said, is that the character is rich while he is poor.