Manaka Ranaka shares emotional details about the day her daughter Katlego died
Manaka Ranaka recently opened up about the heart-wrenching day she received the news of her daughter's death.
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South African actress and TV presenter, Manaka Ranaka, opened up about the heartbreaking moment she learned of her daughter, Katlego’s passing.
During a recent interview with Power FM, she detailed the devastating day of her passing and how she received the tragic news.
She revealed that on the day, she was at work when she got a call from the hospital, letting her know that she must rush to the hospital.
Visibly heartbroken, Ranaka said, “I was at work, it was a Thursday around eight and ten in the morning. And I think I had three scenes that day. The last scene that I had to do, we had a new guy on set. And I still feel guilty about it.
“I didn’t give him my all, but I’m not going to feel sorry, you know. I was going through the most,” she said.
When a family member's well-being is at stake, we often experience an unsettling intuition - a persistent feeling that something is amiss, signalling impending trouble or bad news.
That is exactly what the “Generations: The Legacy” actress said she experienced prior to being told about her daughter’s passing.
“As I was feeling weird that day, the call from the hospital came through, and I mean, they called us all the time.
“But this one was very different, and they wanted us to rush to the hospital, to come through. I couldn't because I’m at work,” she said.
However, since she was at work, she asked her mom and friend to go on her behalf.
Ranaka added, “When she called me at work to let me know what they are saying at the hospital, because that’s what our routine is now.
“And then she [her mom] told me that she’s gone and I just lost it, you know, because I was still hoping that she’ll be fine. You know what I mean.”
She added that at that moment, she wished she could have done things differently and told them at work that she needed to rush to go see her daughter urgently at the hospital.
Since her daughter’s passing in 2025, Ranaka has been very honest about her healing and how she is dealing with grief.
She has opened up on social media and also done multiple interviews, revealing how she is learning to cope with Katlego’s sudden passing.
“Being a realist has helped me with my grief. You can't bring the dead back, you just have to learn to live without them,” Ranaka once said in a candid interview on the "Engineer Your Life" podcast.