Motlatji is Pursuing Happiness

Motlatji Ditodi is an amazing person of many talents, dreams and aspirations and tackles each day with her “Do it now” attitude. With an extensive repertoire, she has accomplished much and yet still wants to do much more. With all her on-stage presence as an actress, voice over artist and singer, Motlatji now finds herself back at UJ, coming full circle from her student days, to train, teach, grow and develop the talents of students in the arts, who she describes as being “so hungry to perform.”

From youth Motlatji has been performing in school productions and musicals and had a hand in as many productions as she could. After high school she came to UJ and did her B.A. Audiovisual Production Management degree, taking part in all culture activities in Skoonveld Ladies Residence, where she stayed (and became HK in her 2^nd year), and she was in the UJ choir. In her third and fourth year she was involved in the Arts Centre, taking part in every production through the Song and Dance Company, Contemporary Dance, as well as the Drama Company, Motlatji found a home on that stage clearly supported as she says “I want to do all mediums of acting and performing”

After varsity she worked for Red Pepper Pictures where she realised she wanted to get into acting as a professional. From that point she did a few adverts and acted in SABC 2’s Askies, as Nombulelo, as Thembi in Zone 14 on SABC 1 and in the short film Southern Cross, she played the character of Lerato. For someone who has been in the public eye for so long, she still can’t get used to watching herself on TV, but thrives to not only be the best for herself but to represent her country as being one of its greater assets in her genre.

With every job becoming bigger and as a fresh new venture which has seen Motlatji come this far, now she feels it time to give back to the stage where she once thrived.  Currently, involved with ‘Quiet Violence of Dreams’, S.A. Shorts and doing vocals on a friends album, Motlatji still finds it greatly rewarding to train the actors and to teach them the beautiful art that is acting. This in turn brings one of Motlatji’s own aspirations of doing more directing to fulfilment as she has aims of telling more stories, on and off the silver screen, from a black woman’s perspective and added the importance of supporting a cause and being more than just ‘a passenger in your own life’ as she feels “If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.”

Motlatji, with her fun, vibrant and goal driven personality is someone who really stands out, surprisingly she has a preference on individual conversation over crowds of noisy banter. She ended off by saying “find your own journey to happiness and enjoy every moment of your life because everything could end tomorrow.”