Meet Papa Penny Penny Ahee's subtitler

She probably has one of the toughest jobs in TV production at the moment.

By  | Nov 16, 2017, 09:10 AM

Papa Penny

Her name is Hikatekile Maringa and she's the lady responsible for helping the rest of Mzansi understand what Papa Penny Penny is saying when he starts speaking English on his reality show.

As we all know, speaking English is not Papa Penny's strongest forte' but that's ok because that's what Hikatekile Maringa is here for.

Zalebs recently caught up with the subtitler who informed us about how she got the job and the joys & challenges she experiences with doing subtitles for Papa Penny Penny Ahee.


She might be humble about this but what we've gathered is that Hikatekile is one of the most sought-after Tsonga/Venda subtitlist in the industry, which is something to be really proud of. She shared with Zalebs how she got this particular job.

"Somebody, I'm not sure who referred me to them (Papa Penny's production team) because I was doing subtitles for a number of shows and most of these shows were in Tsonga and Venda. So whenever somebody was looking for a Tsonga & Venda subtitler most people would refer me, so somebody gave them my number & the rest is history." - Said Hikatekile


You might also think that translating Papa Penny Penny's English for us all to understand is a difficult job for Hikatekile but she doesn't think so.

"Most times it's not really difficult, because of the context. I can figure out what he's saying because I can see what's going on and I understand the context, so I can put it together. But other times he likes to put in his own things and then I have to figure out what the saying could possibly mean or he wants to take like an African saying and translate it to English and that's where it sometimes get's a bit tricky."

Hikatekile also shared that it's actually Papa Penny Penny's Tsonga that's more difficult to translate than his English because he's very comfortable with it and sometimes does not finish his sentences properly.


It takes Hikatekile a full working day to complete her subtitles for the reality show 9:00am - 17:00pm to be exact.

Thank you Hikatekile you are a true national treasure.

Main Image Credit: Supplied