Staff Reporter
Popular actress Tinopona Katsande is set to return to the screen next month after a long absence.
Tinopona rose to stardom when she featured in the ZBC TV soapie Studio 263 in the early 2000s playing the role of Joyce Huni.
She has been off the screen since July last year.
Tinopona said she had taken time off the studio lights and cameras to concentrate on her entrepreneurial business.
“I am returning to Kuchina, having taken time out with the surprise birth of Mazai KwaTino and they had gracefully given me some time off to set up my entrepreneurial business, but come next month, Getty (her character in Kuchina) is back on the screen, just in time for valentines,” she said.
Meanwhile, Tinopona took to social media platform to pay tribute to the late Charmaine Mangwende, who was popularly known as Mai Huni and her ‘mom’ on Studio 263 as the person who helped shale her career.
“As I go through these scripts, I am elated to announce that I am heading back to the silver screen soon. I love acting and I am blessed to be working with some of the greatest in the Zimbabwe film and television industry both in front and behind the camera,” she said.
“With a couple of awards tucked under my belt thus far, I cannot give credit where credit is not due. You knew her as “Mai Huni”, of Studio263, Zimbabwe’s first television soap that birthed my acting career.”
“I knew her as ShumShum. A colleague, a friend, a confidant, an adviser, a mentor, a protector, and a human being with one of the biggest hearts I have ever met. Charmaine Mangwende angaasinga vhaire (was a down to earth person). From top government officials to the disadvantaged, Charmaine made you feel included,” she added
“She (Mangwende) taught me focus, selflessness and dedication in the film and television business in Zimbabwe,” she said.
“When she passed away several years ago, I was away. I rushed home hoping to catch the funeral, but there was so much confusion or perhaps miscommunication and I did not make it. I was devastated.
“I always wanted to, but procrastinated and never got around to telling ShumShum just how special she was in my life. I am grateful for the opportunities pouring my way because of legends like Charmaine Mangwende who set the pace for actresses and female production crew in the industry in Zimbabwe.”
Tinopona Katsande started her career in her teens as a model when she became Miss Mutare in 1997 and went on to be Miss Zimbabwe finalist in that same year.
She later went to California in the United States to study and further her modelling career for nine years.
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