Our top 10 moments from Youngins Season 2

Get your drama, fresh drama here! It’s juicy, it’s overflowing with local flavour, and it’s as addictive as whatever’ s in those white squares of paper Tumelo keeps buying. 

After exposing and bringing down their predator principal in Youngins Season 1, “The Olifants Five” – Amo Mosweu (Ayakha Ntunja), Buhle Kunene (Kealeboga Masango), Khaya Jali (Toka Matabane), Tumelo Dibakwane (Lebohang Lephatsoana), and Mahlatse Jiyane (Thabiso Ramotshela) – returned to school as heroes. 

Alas, it was not to last. And just three episodes in, they had gone from being the investigators, to the criminals, after their number one fan and praise singer, grade eight student Tokollo (Katleho Mabote), paid for their carelessness with his life. 

And that was just the beginning. Here are our top 10 incidents that made Youngins Season 2 unforgettable.

Binge Youngins Season 1-2 on Showmax now.

1. The gang killed Tokollo

At the end of episode 2, fire broke out in Tumelo and Mahlatse’s dorm room when Mahlatse left the hot plate on after cooking up weed gummies. By episode 3, fire was raging through the boys’ dorms, and we saw students scrabbling around, trapped in the smoke, while their friends tried to contact them as news of the fire spread. There was a genuine sense of fear as the teachers like Pearl (Keneilwe Matidze) tried to count students to see who was missing. As Tshepo (Tshepo Matlala) finally staggered out of the dorm and into his cousin Sefako’s (Tabile Tau) arms, Mahlatse still couldn’t find Tokollo. Then the paramedics wheeled out of the dorm with a body on their gurney, fully covered in a foil blanket. Nobody stopped Mahlatse when he stepped forward to pull back the foil blanket, revealing Tokollo’s face. The episode ended with Mahlatse’s tear- and smoke-stained face filling with horror.

2. Amo framed Lesedi

In episode 9, Amo thought she was killing two birds with one stone when she framed Lesedi (Eyethu Myeza) for the fire that killed Tokollo. A vicious and violent bully, Lesedi had gone out of his way to make enemies at Olifants since returning to the school at the start of the term. It was a terrible thing for Amo to do, but Youngins fans were not sorry to see Lesedi go. Right from episode 1 we saw the tactics he used to terrorise even class clown Tshepo – from flushing his head in a nasty, used toilet, to straightforward battery and assault. He sexually harassed the girls in a way that made us truly afraid for their safety, and he seized control of the school’s underground markets. Even so, sjoe, Amo!

How she did it makes Amo one to watch. She carried out a whole Mission Impossible-style solo operation in which she stole the real primary piece of evidence – the burned out hotplate – then planted a bottle of paraffin and matches in Lesedi’s school bag, where it was in good company with his drugs and stolen goods (like Tumelo’s camera and the other students’ phones, which Amo had also stolen). And then she went off to “confess” her suspicions to Principal Ramathuba (Simo Magwaza). 

3. Truth was the ultimate passion killer

In episode 12, just as they were about to lose their virginity to each other – 10 condoms in hand – Amo confessed to Mahlatse that Lesedi didn’t start the fire after all. And that she planted evidence in his bag to protect Mahlatse. Mahlatse was horrified to realise that his good, sweet Amo would cross the line like that, morally. Sex was 100% off the cards! Heartbreakingly, he asked her to confirm what he had always suspected: that he truly was responsible for Tokollo’s death. Walking out into a crowd of idiots singing about him having sex with Amo to the tune of Shosholoza was just the crowning horror!

4. Wrestling won the talent show

We had a much-needed laugh watching Buhle and Mr Ramathuba pull the talent show in opposite directions during the early weeks of the season. It was Shakespeare vs twerking, as we discovered Principal Ramathuba’s passion for the stage … and rediscovered Buhle’s passion for getting her own way behind people’s backs.

Meanwhile, unknown to their friends, Khaya and Amo were reenacting their own little Romeo and Juliet drama as Khaya comforted Amo in episode 13. By episode 15, the day of the talent show, Khaya was head over heels again, and bad boy Mazambane (Kadiya Banyini) filmed Khaya kissing Amo. Just as Mahlatse was starting to accept that Amo had framed Lesedi to protect him out of love, the news flew round the school practically in seconds, as Mazambane ran to Mahlatse and Buhle with his evidence. 

We were braced for war from that moment on. Amo and Buhle finally got into two seasons worth of simmering betrayal and jealousy in episode 18, full out, in the cafeteria. If you thought the talent show brought drama and excitement, sit down with your popcorn, because the night has just begun. After Buhle lashed out with statements like, “Having an evil heart runs in the family … I’m sure she killed her mother,” it was an all-out hair-pulling, face-punching catfight. Are you not entertained?

5. Sefako tried to kill himself

During the season, Tumelo became addicted to drugs. And while he was high in episode 30, he outed Sefako on social media. We saw Sefako struggle bitterly with everyone’s reactions to him being gay – something he frequently publically humiliated and degraded Tumelo for during Season 1. We witnessed his struggle with having his choice taken away in a way that truly made us walk in his shoes. While his friends closed ranks to protect him and Sefako even got asked out (politely) by another gay student, he was vulnerable in places where his friend’s weren’t around him. In the boys’ toilets, his cousin Tshepo and his squad of bully boys reacted with genuine hatred. Tshepo told Sefako, “Your mother sees you as s**t! She wants to flush you down the drain.” 

Imagine hearing someone taunt you with the biggest fears you had about yourself! Sefako, unable to handle the impact of the hatred he faced, tried to take his own life in episodes 33 and 34. Watching him build up to the decision after facing one day of the hatred Tumelo dealt with his whole life was devastating. The fact that he chose the tree outside his and Tumelo’s secret kissing place in the gardens to die (while his voiceover read his final letter, apologising to his parents), had us in floods. 

Youngins then did the hard work of having Sefako survive, and putting him back together again. The school brought in an experienced social worker to help him to work through his fears. Principal Ramathuba told him how much braver Sefano’s generation is, than his own was, for living their truth. And he told Sefako all the things about himself that made him a “very strong, good boy” in his eyes. Meanwhile Khaya, who knew Sefako’s secret and has never used it against him, refused to let Sefako’s tormentors off the hook when they claimed what they did to him was “just a joke, bro”.

6. Tumelo overdosed

Each of the Fantastic Five reacted to their guilty consciences over Tokollo’s death and their cover up by framing an “innocent” student differently. For Tumelo, it meant a season-long attempt to drug himself into oblivion. While high, he outed Palesa’s prostitution side hustle, and all the gossip she’s shared with him, on his live social media account in an attempt to chase clout. 

It got miles worse when he accidentally outed Sefako while he was high on cocaine. Sefako’s suicide attempt pulled Tumelo under while he was already drowning. He burned a lot of bridges with his friends, becoming increasingly isolated until, at the start of episode 37, we saw him clutch at his heart after taking another drug dose. Youngins fans’ hearts were beating in double time as Tumelo sank to the ground, with terror and shock on his face. Mahlatse’s pants-wetting fear on finding Tumelo mid-overdose was all our fears! 

While he survived by the skin of his teeth, and with a little help from his friends, coming back from addiction wasn’t easy. Despite everything Tumelo had said and done, the Olifants Five stood firm and walked the road to recovery with him, one step at a time. 

7. “I wasn’t selling sex to myself”

From episode 25, proudly sex positive Palesa was in the fight for her life after fellow student Banele (Ayanda Sishuba) blackmailed her into having sex with him. Amo and Alex (Gaositoe Moloke) were ready to fight in her corner after she told them what was happening in episode 29. And when a social worker (Nqobile Magwaza) came to the school to investigate Palesa’s case in episode 31, she refused to sweep anything under the rug. After investigating Palesa’s home life, her next step was to investigate the school itself. 

The school board was not prepared for what they heard when they called in Tshepo, who, at first, supported and fought for Palesa’s right to her own body and self-expression, then thoughtlessly blabbed Palesa’s lucrative business selling her body to the male students in episode 35. Well, whoops. 

After explaining to Palesa that both selling her body and running what amounted to a child sexual material website was illegal, and arranging for her to be arrested, the school held an assembly to explain. But Palesa, realising that none of the male students were being expelled with her, interrupted the assembly to point out, “I wasn’t selling sex to myself. I was selling it to all of you.” She then named and shamed her blackmailer, Banele, out loud in front of everyone. And she gave a name to his actions: sexual assault. 

Watching the boys freak out and scream when faced with the same threat as Palesa was going through, as she stared them down, was a sweet, sweet moment of justice in episode 37. And it only got sweeter when the social worker revealed that what else had come up in her investigation could ruin the school. 

The cops came to the school three times this season to lead students off in handcuffs. Seeing Banele get what he deserved was the best of the three. And do you know who agrees with us? Tshepo. As he told Palesa, “If he hadn’t done this to you, he’d have done it to another girl.” We’re here for this season’s Tshepo redemption arc.

8. Mr Ramathuba became our hero

The school was in shock when this strict, permanently furious and disappointed maths teacher, nicknamed FW De Klerk by certain students, stepped into Principal Mthembu’s shoes and showed what he was really made of. The man Khaya taunted for being a “product of Bantu education” in Season 1 used his position of power not to be a tyrant, but to be fair, open-minded, and to actually listen to the students (eventually). 

Whether he was gentle parenting Amo for helping Lesedi to cheat on his geography test, or navigating Palesa’s rape and prostitution issues, he kept his cool, was open to being reasoned with, and heard everyone from a place that was not just ethical, but kind. In episode 33, even the school’s hooligans noted what he was doing and said, “De Klerk is not like Mthembu. That’s a real man.” 

Yes, Principal Ramathuba fumbled at first by not doing more to guide Sefako on how to handle being bullied, but he also made his stance on student sexuality clear: private parts were private business, and bullying would not be tolerated. Watching him counsel Sefako after his suicide attempt showed the impact it can have when the older generation truly supports the younger one, and gives them a reason to be proud. 

And when Palesa named the boys she’d prostituted herself to, Principal Ramathuba believed her. Immediately. Yes, he was wrong (if accurate) to claim that her rape case against Banele and claims of revenge porn would likely not hold up in court, but once he got hold of his temper, he was willing to listen to her, understand her point of view, and support her when she insisted on taking the case to the police. And in return, she trusted him to listen.

9. The Fantastic Five pushed back

After Lesedi returned to Olifants in episode 39, he was quick to pull the strings to make the Olifants Five do whatever he wanted, including copying and sneaking him the geography exam in episode 42. But when he demanded that they set fire to Principal Ramathuba’s car, the gang pushed back at last, and the school dustbins got their molotov cocktails instead. The season finale started with a cheer-out-loud moment when all five sat shoulder-to-shoulder and calmly advised Lesedi to drop out of school before they got him expelled. As Buhle told him, “If you insist on ruining our lives, we’ll also ruin yours. Let it all go up in smoke.” Unfortunately for them, Lesedi called their bluff. But it was still an important lesson to see how Lesedi shrank into himself when confronted by people who weren’t backing down.

10. The Fantastic Five got arrested!

The Five might have destroyed Lesedi’s power over them by pushing back together, but the truth was not so easy to dodge. In the season finale, Detective Khumalo (Rantsatsi Rantsatsi) took Mahlatse and Tumelo, who’d invited himself, to Principal Ramathuba’s office, where he confronted them with the burned out stove plate that started the deadly dorm fire. Detective Khumalo asked Mahlatse, who had thought of nothing else in his darkest hours throughout the season, to imagine TK burning alive. 

While Tumelo requested a lawyer, Mahlatse cracked like an egg and admitted that the stove plate was his and stammered a confession through his tears. But as Detective Khumalo led a crying Mahlatse through the school in handcuffs, Tumelo desperately claimed that the stove was his instead. And, following his example, the rest of the Fantastic Five all started claiming they were there when Mahatse was using the stove. The season ended with all five in the back of a police van, with a jubilant Lesedi crowing over his victory. Well, anything rather than write Matric midterms, we suppose!

Binge Youngins Season 1-2 on Showmax now.