Cape Town - Terry Pheto is a household name in South Africa because of her tremendous work as an actress in films in such as Tsotsi, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, and Catch a Fire.
Pheto has also recently garnered international praise for her producing credit on another local film called Ayanda.
But the successful artist’s life was once very different as she shared on her Instagram account with a powerful post about overcoming her toughest struggles. The actress writes about carving her own destiny and the women who inspired her along with a photo of her as a young girl.
Here’s the text:
I am Moitheri Pheto, the 'One' who planned herself.
I hail from the dusty neighborhoods of Evaton, two roomed shack, rough jagged unprotected, no concrete streets. No running water and no lights. I felt the cold, and endured the brutal ache of being A-HAVE NOT. I am that girl, that shoeless zealot who dared to dream. I am that girl who could not and did not let the poverty I was born into make my heart sick.
So even then, I understood that there must be more to life to than just my reality.
I'm a storyteller today because i have lived the lives of the broken, of the hungry and the hopeless.
Peeped through windows, seeing strangers tv screens, wasted discarded old magazines, I flipped through pages, and pages, . YES I could see me.
Leleti Khumalo, was she real?? Shado Twala, was she real? Indeed! So Yes that could be me! And there where others, women who once where children, underprivileged and undiscovered. I believed, Yes this could be me!
I AM MOITHERI... The "ONE" who carved her DESTINY. Get a copy @destinyconnect August issue. THAT GIRL IS ME.
Here’s the post: