Nomzamo Mbatha bags African Pride award as career 'peaks'

Despite Nomzamo Mbatha's recent health scare, the local celebrity says she is at the peak of her career.

Speaking to Essence Now's host Mkaho Ndlovu, during a recent trip to New York, the 'Isibaya' actress revealed that she's sacrificing a lot of her time as her career is reaching its peak.

"The sad thing is about where I am in my career is that I'm literally at... I'm reaching my peak. And part of doing that requires a lot of sacrifices - I'm sacrificing a lot of my time, I'm sacrificing a lot of things that I enjoy doing. I haven't had a holiday..." she said.

Nomzamo added that she's currently "harnessing her craft".

"I'd love to be in a space where I can play with people who have done it and who have come before me. Uhm... hopefully, it's going to happen, but I think right now it's all about harnessing my craft," she said.

Sadly, not long after Nonzamo was back on home soil, she took to social media to share that she suffered from decompression illness on her flight home from New York.

"On my flight back from New York last week I had a terrible health scare on the plane that had me breathing through an oxygen tank and having to lay on the floor whilst being 10 hours away from home. This was exhaustion and my body screaming for help..." she said. 

Nomzamo said she decided to put her health first and cancelled a trip to London for the African Pride Awards on Sunday.  

Even though Nomzamo was unfortunately unable to attend the awards ceremony, she was proud to have scooped an award in the Outstanding In Film (Africa) Category. 

The actress and TV show host has been jet-setting to many countries around the world for her work, including hosting some of the biggest international gigs this year.

On my flight back from New York last week I had a terrible health scare on the plane that had me breathing through an oxygen tank and having to lay on the floor whilst being 10 hours away from home. This was exhaustion and my body screaming for help. I then took the difficult decision to put my health first and cancel some of my upcoming international trips, which meant not being able to go to London and attend the African Pride Awards that I was nominated at, this past Sunday I'm proud and HAPPY to share that WE WON!!!!!!! My God, we WON! Thank you for VOTING and being relentless in your SUPPORT and abundant LOVE that you show this crazy girl. I'm so full of GRATITUDE and a deep sense of humility. That I have people who believe in my dreams and constantly replenish my well of being! THANK YOU EVERYONE!

A post shared by Nomzamo Mbatha 🇿🇦 (@nomzamo_m) on Aug 16, 2017 at 1:41pm PDT

Nomzamo's manager, Pumza Nohashe, added that despite the exhaustion, the star was still in "outstanding health".

Speaking to TshisaLive, Nohashe said: "Nomzamo Mbatha has fully recovered from a decompression sickness, which occurs due to various altitude exposures. 

"The British Airways attending staff were swift in their assistance and upon landing in Johannesburg she was cleared by a medical doctor to be in good health."