Umthetho Review
Director: Mandla N, Johnny Barbuzano and Jonathan Hall
Date Created: 2026-08-14 23:02
3.5
Umthetho Review: Directed by Mandla N, Johnny Barbuzano and Jonathan Hall, Netflix’s South African crime thriller stars Nqobile Nunu Khumalo as Mbali Dlamini, Tony Kgoroge as Moses Dlamini, Given Stuurman as Sphelele Dlamini, Sthembiso Khoza as Zola, Ernest Msibi as Scarra, Lungelo Madondo as Ntombi Sibiya, Lorcia Cooper as Crystal, Molefi Monaisa as Detective Bennet Tau, Sindi Dlathu as Agnes, alongside others. The series consists of 7 episodes, each running around 50 minutes, and is adapted from the Brazilian crime drama Brotherhood.
Umthetho Review
Netflix’s Umthetho starts with the introduction of Mbali, a public prosecutor whose entire life has been devoted to the notion that the law must hold some meaning in life. However, her belief soon comes crashing down on her when she finds out that her brother, Moses, who she thought had died, was not only alive but had established himself as a formidable force within the prison system. The situation takes a serious turn when her other brother, Sphelele, finds himself trapped in a web of events that threaten the whole family.
The thing that I found to be most fascinating about the Netflix South African series Umthetho was that even without using the thriller elements of its story, it still manages to hold my interest. The thing that kept me interested in the plot was the transformation of Mbali. In the beginning, she is one of those characters who see Moses only through his past actions. She knows what he did; she does not trust him, and being a prosecutor, she holds the belief that when one breaks the law, he must be punished for it.
That is how Nqobile Nunu Khumalo manages to give life to the character. Mbali could have easily become another typical “nice person stuck in the wrong place” heroine, yet Khumalo manages to create enough inner conflict in her to make her actions difficult to witness. It was easy to understand why she made all those compromising decisions, even though I did not agree with them. The love towards Sphelele becomes especially significant since it gives emotional motivation for her reckless decisions.
Moses from Tony Kgoroge is another character that cannot be overlooked since the show does not present him as an easy-to-dismiss villain. While he can be scary, there is a lot more about this character beyond his reputation as a criminal. His interactions with Mbali are characterised by long-term bitterness, misunderstanding, and estrangement, and I appreciated how the show gradually made me look at Moses from a different perspective. Moses lives in a harsh world, but his behaviour is often provoked by the world around him.
This is perhaps one of the major contradictions in the Netflix series Umthetho, where Mbali thinks that she knows what justice is due to her involvement with the legal system, while Moses has had to survive in a system that has not offered him justice. I liked how their two different perspectives clashed with each other. Their connection gives the series an emotional base rather than being just a prison gang series.
Stuurman is also given an essential storyline through Sphelele. It’s not just for him to be that young brother whom everybody has to watch out for. His plight is what makes him part of the machinery which draws Mbali into more danger, and I enjoyed how his weakness influences his siblings’ decisions. On the other hand, I thought that some secondary characters had been poorly constructed.
This is especially true in the case of Agnes. While Sindi Dlathu convincingly portrays the character, there is an overall lack of depth and humanity about her because she comes off more as an embodiment of cruelty. Every time the show concentrates on Agnes, the moral complexity that succeeds so well with Mbali and Moses tends to fall flat. This applies to several episodes involving the prison storyline, where some betrayals and confrontations seem to exist only for the sake of advancing the plot further.
This is the major problem that I have with the Netflix Umthetho series; it sometimes tries to be overly intense. There are situations when violence and danger are believable due to their organic emergence from characters’ situations, and there are situations when the series introduces yet another betrayal, threat, or fight that I can imagine writers positioning the pieces on the board.
The short number of episodes in one season helps not to make the series too time-consuming, but at times I believe some scenes should have been cut from the series. More believable are those episodes that unite family conflicts, prison politics and corruption, as the tension appears from characters’ actions rather than from anything else.
I was glad that the Umthetho series continually questions what happens when the motives are correct even though the actions are wrong. The profession that Mbali has makes this point all the more effective. It is not a case of her ceasing to care about justice; instead, her idea of justice shifts depending on who gets involved. This makes her plotline all the more interesting.
It is through the performances that the inconsistent elements of the show become easier to accept. Khumalo carries the emotional part of the show, whereas Kgoroge brings the necessary power and unpredictable nature that Moses requires to tell the story of the prison. The chemistry between these two characters is the place where Umthetho comes alive.
Netflix Umthetho Review: Summing Up
The 2026 Umthetho series is your typical crime thriller. Some of the tropes that you get from it are predictable, such as prison gangs, crooked people, informants, betrayal, and changes of alliances. However, when it centres around the Dlamini siblings, the show becomes quite intriguing to watch because it shows how quickly one can be ready to compromise their values when family is put in danger.
So overall, I enjoyed the story, as well as the exploration of Mbali and Moses, and there were strong performances that made emotional battles even more vivid. The only thing that I would like to change about the show is the fact that it relies on thriller elements much more than on its characters.
