SAFTA Award winning actress Jo-Anne Reyneke, who plays Lungi Biyela, made her final appearance on SABC3's "Isidingo" on Tuesday, June 25.
Reyneke has been with the SABC3 TV series since October 2018, where she played the role of the vivacious and formidable Lungi.
Reyneke said she wanted to be a part of Isidingo since she was a kid.
“Working on this production has been a dream come true for me. Being on Isidingo has been nothing short of an absolute pleasure and been a walk in the park. It runs like a well-oiled machine and is an actress' dream to work on.
"It has been an absolute pleasure being part of the cast and I will forever cherish my time on the show. I will miss everyone that I have worked with and will miss being on set," she said.
A round of applause 👏👏👏 for the incredibly talented @JoanneReyneke.
Tonight we bid her farewell.
Thank you for sharing your craft and talent with the Isidingo family.
You will be sorely missed on and off screen! pic.twitter.com/KxKr84WgQ3
— Isidingo (@IsidingoSABC3) June 25, 2019
Her previous soapie roles included that of bubbly receptionist Pearl in SABC2's Venda daily drama "Muvhango" and Prudence Oliphant, an uptight office manager for Redemption Records, in e.tv's "Rhythm City". She also appeared in two episodes of the SABC1 drama series, "Intersexions", where she played Layla.
In 2018, Reyneke landed her first official lead role in SABC1's drama, "Side Dish", where she played Sli, a woman who was born into a financially unstable family, but who does anything necessary to change that.
The show explored basic human instincts, how far people are willing to go to protect themselves, the Sugar Daddy and Sugar Baby lifestyle, where young girls are getting married to older men in order to live a certain lifestyle.
This was a breakthrough role for Reyneke and she was excited to step out of the soapie playground.
"Most of the productions I've been in have been soapies, where the story moves slowly in order to have content for long periods of time. However, Side Dish was drama packed per episode, to walk the intense journey of the woman and in the pace that it happens was my greatest challenge," she said.
When the show aired, Reyneke said she was proud of the storyline and her biggest pet hate was hearing the phrase" "South African viewers are not ready for this".
"This is highly inaccurate, American content is highly supported by South African viewers, we love it and we get it, there is no need for our viewers to not see our own people in these amazing stories, for our youth to see people that look and sound like them on their TV's.
Reyneke is yet to reveal what's next in the pipeline.
IOL