Southern African Celebs

Full name: Vusi Leremi
Date of birth:  01 July 1999 (22 years old)
Place of Origin: Soweto, Johannesburg
Education: Roosevelt High school (Johannesburg)
Occupation: Actor
Famous for: Playing Clement Letsoalo on Skeem Saam
Nationality: South African

Early Beginnings, High school and acting

Vusi Leremi is a South African actor born on the 1st of July in 1999. He is famous for his role on Skeem Saam as Clement Letsoalo. The actor started playing this role from an early age of 12 years while he was in grade 6. It was tough for him having to juggle school and work. He attended his high school at Roosevelt High school where he passed well in his final matric year. But, it wasn’t easy, as he said in an interview conducted by the SABC; as a child who wasn’t much of an academic, he had to put in twice the work into his book. However, to no one’s surprise, hard work did pay out and he made it together with his co-star and peer Lerato Marabe (Pretty Seakamela)

He completed his matric in 2017. Reflecting on his matric he recalled how wonderful his matric dance was. Saying it was “out of this world” and that getting a tailored suit was the best part as him and his friends were slaying to the bone. He also mentions how enjoyable it was having his friends around and that he was always happy around his friends. Vusi Leremi also mentioned his celebtity crush as Pearl Modiadie and said that he loves sneakers (shoes).

Vusi struggled with cash flow after his character was cut off in 2011

In 2011, the character of Clement Letsoalo was deemed irrelevant for further use and so he was cut off. During this time he had cash flow problems in his life and had to move back to Soweto after his time in Melville was over. He couldn’t afford to live in Melville no more, it was too expensive so he moved back to Soweto. These were tough times for Vusi however, in 2018 however, he recieved a call that his character would return. This call couldn’t come any sooner as all hope was seemingly gone for the actor.

And after such a long time off set, Vusi shared how difficult it was tune in back into character. When he went back, Leremi shared some interesting things, he said that often times he couldn’t get in or out of character. However, his friends from the show helped him and he managed to hop back into the master’s seat. And, he is grateful to all those who believed in him and helped him during the transition.

Vusi Leremi did a lot of research before playing Clement’s gay side

Vusi Leremi’s stunning perfomance of Clement who happened to be gay left him with many questions. While in an interview with TshisaLive, Vusi shared how he got to farmiliarize himself with the role. He a lot of research on the LGBTQI+ community to better understand their struggles and what they face. In the interview he shared his sentiment saying that the LGBTQI+ community was highly misunderstood by society and people had a lot of misconception about it.

While the Audience was shocked at the turn of events, for Vusi things were clear from the start. He had been informed in 2017 that the character would leave the closet. So, he had enough time to research and speak to people in the LGBTQI+ community to understand their daily struggles in order to strengthen the emotional intelligence of his character. Moreover, one of the challenges he faced was adding this new element to Clement’s character without changing the old persona.

This was the same with Ayanda Daweti from Scandal, known pseudonymously as Chumani Langa. Furthermore, he added that growing up in Soweto he saw the mistreatments on a daily basis, how gays and lesbians were excluded from the community for their s.e.xuality and how people would dissociate themselves from them. He even further added that this was how society abuses its brothers, sisters, children and friends on something they can’t change and condemned this with a stern confidence.