For the sake of love: Doubt, S1, is now streaming

Lindiwe (Khanya Mkanyisa) has spent months planning her dream wedding with long-time sweetheart Sanele (Yonda Thomas) and everything has gone along well, in locally produced drama show Doubt (2016). Now available on Showmax, the action picks up in episode 1 at the couple’s wedding, which ends in tears when the groom is hauled away in handcuffs because he’s been accused of murder.

“Lindiwe refuses to believe that Sanele is guilty of this crime,” explains Khanya. “They are varsity sweethearts and she knows him inside out – that’s why their relationship has been perfect… up until now.”

Sanele is behind bars for the murder of a stripper who was hired as entertainment at his bachelor party, but there’s a problem: he doesn’t remember seeing the dancer, let alone killing her.

“His world comes to a complete standstill,” gasps Yonda. “It’s trauma, and never in his wildest imagination did he think this would happen – especially to ruin his big day with the love of his life.”

But while Lindiwe ends episode 1 fully supporting the man she loves, evidence begins to mount up and soon she starts to question her faith in Sanele…

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Truth or dare

Despite suspicions nagging at the back of Lindiwe’s mind, she puts on a brave face in the community and knocks on every door to free her hubby. “Her main concern is ‘I need to help my husband! The police have made a terrible mistake and I need to get him out of prison and back home where I can take care of him’,” sighs Khanya.

But the evidence creeps out every now and again to make Lindiwe doubt her instinct and the actress adds that “Lindiwe looks back at her relationship. She scours every inch and there is not a single thing that she can pick up hinting to Sanele having another side to him.”

Khanya adds that if Sanele really is innocent, “Someone has gone to a lot of trouble to frame him. Everything has been placed in the perfect way to make it seem like no one else could’ve done it. It’s so perfect and the evidence matches up so well – it’s like his guilt is obvious. And that makes her wonder.”

Lindiwe gets help in her quest from her mom-in-law Grace (Amanda Quwe), who says that “they have their normal mother-daughter-in-law arguments, but that is put aside to get Sanele out of trouble, because he didn’t do this”. The ladies grab every chance they have to communicate with imprisoned Sanele, and Khanya explains that “it’s difficult because he’s in prison. He says one thing, the police say another. It’s no wonder that Lindiwe crumbles slowly – despite what she knows in her heart, her head puts the pieces together and works things out and that’s when she starts doubting Sanele’s innocence because he isn’t there at her side to say, ‘Hey, I didn’t do this!’”

One too many lies

Who better to be a judge of character and a sounding board for Lindiwe than her father-in-law Jacob (Glen Gabela), who is an actual courtroom judge? “Sanele is falling apart locked in jail,” says Yonda, “so he is desperate for any help whatsoever. His dad is a strict judge and he knows a liar when he sees one. That’s his job – to sort out the right and the wrong, the lawful and the unlawful.”

The cops aren’t helping matters because they’re dragging their feet and that annoys Lindiwe. She feels like she’s at her wits end and that impacts Sanele when he sees her in their prison visits in episode 4. “He feels defeated when he sees the look on her face,” adds Yonda. “It hits him hard because he realises that his wife, the woman he loves, the woman he’s been committed to for all these years, is doubting his innocence now.”

Will that make Sanele doubt himself? After all, he’s pretty certain that he didn’t commit murder. Well, at least he thinks he didn’t. If only he could remember that night…

Stream Season 1 of Mzansi Magic’s gripping crime drama Doubt, on Showmax now »