Kuli Roberts speaks about Bob Mabena, ‘The Queen’, and Sello Maake Ka-Ncube

Media personality Kuli Roberts has once again called out veteran actor Sello Maake Ka-Ncube for his “unnecessary call” critiquing her acting, but still admires him.

Speaking on the Azania Mosaka Show on 702, the actress and radio host spoke about many issues that are in her book Siren. She first paid tribute to the late Bob Mabena as the duo worked together on their Kaya FM breakfast show for seven years.

“I mean I worked with him for seven years and he would hate how many photos I would take with him,” she said, adding that Mabena was an amazing person and friend.

Moving onto her current role as Mildred on The Queen, she said the character was right on time.

“There is a lot of talk of open marriages, people seeing other people within their relationships. Yes, this can happen but we need to respect each other. We in 2020 and Mildred’s character plays into this narrative.”

The actress praised the cast, crew and director on the telenovela calling them “lovely people”.

As her role of Mildred had come with mixed feedback, one critique from Maake made headlines after he called her acting “stiff”.

Maake personally called Roberts after her acting debut since 1995, telling her she should have called him for a masterclass.

“I never said I was unhappy with the criticism, he told me that we were enemies after I made the story public. But he has every right to be upset because he thought it was a private conversation. But you can’t call someone you never called and say that… You can only grow from that. He’s a legend and I would have loved the lessons from him.

“But you can’t call a complete stranger and say that. I love him to death, I respect him and admire him though.”

After having one of the most talked-about and watched entertainment shows, Trending SA on SABC 3, Roberts says the amount of power blogs and social media has made the show flourish. However, she said it was one of the reasons she avoided writing on her once-popular column in the Sunday World.

“I have been scared to write my column again because of Twitter; they would have me for breakfast. I wouldn’t change anything but things are different. Celebs should know to not take things personally, it comes with the territory.”

Roberts also touched on her personal life and of being in an interracial relationship in the past. She said she was insulted when people didn’t think she was “black enough”.

“It’s a big insult, you can’t be less black. I am black, not a coconut, a top deck or whatever they say, that is an insult. Just because you were surrounded by white people doesn’t mean their blackness disappears.”

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