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KOTOYI THE TOWNSHIP REJECT

By Sandile NZUZA

NATIONAL FILM & VIDEO FOUNDATION OF SOUTH AFRICA (NFVF) - as PROMO

Thriller - Completed 2016

The white horse of heroin will ride you to hell.

- Year of production
- 2016
- Genres
- Thriller
- Countries
- SOUTH AFRICA
- Languages
- ENGLISH
- Duration
- 90 mn
- Director(s)
- Sandile NZUZA
- Writer(s)
- Sandile NZUZA
- Cast
- Sandile NZUZA, Jadot KABAMBA, Buhle MAZIBUKO
- Producer(s)
- Sandile NZUZA
- Synopsis
- Sthembiso “Kotoyi” Ngcobo is a 20 year old young and charismatic man who has matriculated from a multi-racial school with exceptional results, he has the skills to become anything he wants but feels that he has been robbed of true education of learning about the history of his country that he believes has shaped the present times.
  
  Gifted with the ability to draw, he makes a portrait of a man he has never met or seen before, to his surprise, his grandmother tells him that it is his father. An MK Cadre who went into training 19 years ago but never returned after the war against apartheid even to burry his wife. The questions are unbearable and finds an excape through hustling as a taxi conductor, he prefers it than anything else as he has the chance to interact with diverse people on a daily basis.
  
  It is obvious to his community that he is madly in-love with Nokuthula, a 20 year old Artist who has an ambition of turning a run down building into an Art centre, Kotoyi dedicates a song to her on the radio as they commute to the city. His personality also attracts drug dealers who use him to push drugs in the city through his line of work, fortunately, amongst the dealers, he recognises a detective who once confiscated a taxi which Kotoyi worked on. When Nokuthula is found kissing a man whom she believes is meant to fund her ambition, Kotoyi understands that he is way out of league and searches for power in drug money. When the police raid the club, Kotoyi manages to walk away with a stash of cocaine and money with the intention of becoming a dealer but that is short lived as grandmother discovers this and kicks him out of the house not realising the greater danger beyond. Kotoyi surrenders the stuff but it’s not enough and becomes a wanted man in the city. As he cannot go home, he slips into becoming a junkie and after a series of unfortunate events, he is rescued by a community member who frequents his taxi and returns him home where grandmother helps him.
  
  As Kotoyi goes through withdrawal of the heroin addiction, the spirit of his father keeps visiting him and encourages him to be brave. Now he is unsure if his father died in training like some soldiers in a camp in Uganda or is still alive with another family. During his domestic rehabilitation at home, the bad guys close in and attack his family, the agony his 11 year old brother, Zwelisha faces encourages suicidal Kotoyi to break through and overcome the rehabilitation process and face his vices. Although he was raised well by a religious family, his faith is weak and does not believe that God exists as he has hidden the truth from him and taken away his parents. The irony is that Kotoyi is a role model to Zwelisha whom he still sends to Sunday school. Maybe all hope is not lost.
  
  The community has been so terrorised to the extent that residents have decided to punish scum outside the law, Kotoyi’s friend is caught in between the violence but Kotoyi saves him and exposes to the police the drug lords. Nokuthula receives the grant based on her merits and reveals her sister’s pregnancy test to Dumisani who assumes that she is pregnant with Kotoyi’s child, he is disappointed and walks away. She clears the misunderstanding with Kotoyi who now owns a taxi and they begin to build a life of happiness.