She is an actress, a yogi, and identifies as ‘they’ and ‘them.’ Galaletsang Koffman who played the role of bubbly and talkative hairdresser Beauty on The River recently opened up to the Mantsoe Tsatsi on the Mantsoe Moments podcast on life before bagging the life-changing role on one of the biggest telenovelas in the county.

ABUSE

She didn’t audition for her role on The River. "I had two years when I was blacklisted from the industry. I had a voice; I knew my rights. At a young age when you start asking questions, they say you know too much." On the day she received the call informing her that she got the job to play Beauty, Galaletsang says she was in an abusive relationship and her partner banned her from working. "I didn’t do my first audition because I was locked up for two weeks being beaten up," she says. "I was in a very abusive relationship." When the call came, the guy refused to let her go and work and the day she left the relationship, she had endured three years of suffering. "I showed up at The River with bum shorts and a bra. Everyone thought I was on drugs; it was so funny. I told them I had nowhere to stay, had no clothes and I needed the job." Galaletsang says she has kept the secret for some time and is speaking up now for the first time. "Every year when women share their stories of abuse, I wonder If I should share my own," she says. "This guy cleared out my bank account, beat me up to a pulp, waterboarded me. It was crazy. I was in the streets of Meerdale screaming Vimba (stop him) and no one helped me, and I was naked," she says. The abuse started two to three years into their five-year relationship. "When that call came in for The River, she was in survival mode. "It’s been two weeks. They kept calling but he would hang up. I couldn’t get to my phone. Then I went to Grahamstown Festival, and when I came back, he cleared out my fully furnished two-bedroom apartment," she says. "We then went to live with my mom, and it got to a point where he started hitting and abusing me in front of my mom. It was wild. Even in that moment, I think my relationship with my mom changed so much." She started seeing her parenting skills through the decisions I was making. 

COUCH CASTING

Despite her personal experiences, she also encountered challenges in the world of acting. Galaletsang says that couch casting is a real thing in South Africa "I once went to an audition with a casting director. Everything was great, I killed it. Then this guy walked me to my car. A few days later he said, we should do lunch and I said, no. Three weeks later, I see him at a bar in Melville with a girl I had done the audition with, she got the role," she says. "If he wanted sex, he should have asked," she jokes. She adds that actors go through a lot, like not being cast for being overqualified and other different reasons. "When that door just closed, I had to sit back and restructure" and she went back to do her Honours degree. Before doing her Masters, she then got a call to be on The River.

A YOGI



Galaletsang was raised by her aunt and grandmother. She comes from a home of academics and spiritual beings, and she learned yoga at 16 years old and was taught by her aunt. "As a child, I had a problem with my throat chakra. I couldn’t cry. I remember hitting 15 minutes of meditation. I broke down and cried. I didn’t know what was happening. But for the first time, all the trauma that was in my body was released," they say. "Yoga for me is still a journey." She has also considered teaching it.