He plays the role of ruthless boss, Caesar on e.tv's drama Smoke & Mirrors. After season one, award-winning actor Zolisa Xaluva was reported to have been dismissed by the production company following a "money-related dispute" with the production. Zolisa cleared the air saying he has not been dismissed and in fact, is almost done with season two contractual negotiations.

DISMISSED

An insider at e-TV says Final Chapter Productions,, responsible for the making of Smoke & Mirrors is still deciding whether to keep the leading actor or let him go due to the tough negotiations. "No one has been confirmed for the next season as yet but they were in talks about finances. Maybe they are feeling intimidated by him knowing what he wants, and they decided during the discussion that they would let him go." According to the employee, the channel had not announced any parting of ways.  

NOT FIRED

Currently, Zolisa has finished shooting season one, meaning he has finalised his contractual obligations thus far. "That purely means, even if my contract is not renewed, I wouldn't be fired. I would have just not been returning. So, I have not been fired." Zolisa said. He told ZiMoja that they are almost at the end of the negotiations. "We are still in serious negotiations for season two. Negotiations are never easy and clauses can be tricky. But it hasn't gotten to the point of parting ways. The last conversations we had were this morning and there was no animosity," he added.

LET GO FROM GOMORA

Zolisa was previously let go by Mzansi Magic drama series, Gomora in 2022 after he felt his character was degenerating. In an interview on Kaya 959, Zolisa said at the time that he left partly because they deviated from the original concept of his character of Melusi being pure and a good man. "We had conversations about what we were going to do for season three but ultimately we were like: 'let's park it for now until we can find a way where we can redeem the character for the future'," he said. "I liked that portrayal of a black man unlike the characters on screen that aren't reflective of who we are as men. I loved that he was making an attempt to be a good father as unorthodox as he was. Everything that he did came out of love for his family and community."

CONTROVERSY

Earlier this year, the show made controversial headlines after Diamond and Dolls Reality TV star Tebogo Ramokgadi accused the series producer at e-TV of stealing his show idea. Tebogo said he had pitched a similar idea which was rejected and years later saw the new e-TV production.