Zola Hashatsi hurt that SA only gives 'praise and respect' to dead icons

Actor Zola Hashatsi has shunned people's sudden praise for Kuli Roberts now that she's no longer around. 

The media personality died on February 10 while on the set shooting a new show.

Zola who has been sharing various memories of Kuli since her passing on his timeline, said he was unimpressed with how people were acknowledging the media personality's strides in the entertainment industry only now.

“It’s only when you dead that this country gives you praise and respect. This country breaks its best,” he wrote.

While her other close friends have also spoken up about her woes pertaining to how people in the entertainment industry had come to treat her, the late star shared the same sentiments in an old interview with TshisaLIVE.

“I don’t think people give me my due credit at all. It’s as if I never existed and I never did what I did in this industry.

“When I stepped into this industry, the media in this country were using Westerners instead of South Africans. But as far as they are concerned, my work over the years has had no impact in this country whatsoever.” she said.

Kuli spoke about how the industry had evolved over time but that her own community had failed to embrace her.

“I was doing me during a very white period — in this country and in the industry — and it was fine. But now I’m doing me in this largely black environment and the blacks aren’t having it.”