While reflecting on her journey in the entertainment industry, Nomzamo Mbatha revealed that she was "very underpaid'' during her first year on Mzansi Magic's hit telenovela IsiBaya.

Speaking to a group of students at Nedbank's Talks 4 Success, Nomzamo said her bank account was often overdrawn in most months when she first started out at the telenovela.

"First year at IsiBaya, I earned peanuts, but I was working hard. Most months my bank account was in a minus," she revealed, before quipping about how she would go to industry events without a "black cent" in her account.

She added that on top of being underpaid, she was overworked.

"I was underpaid but I was overworked. The problem was there was a demand for this new girl (herself), ‘we want to book her for this’ but she was not available," she said.

"The value of my time was undervalued. I couldn’t go out there and compensate the money I was losing out on."

It was only after taking a year off to film Tell Me Sweet Something and another TV drama Umlilo, that Nomzamo started understanding the value of her time.

“Me just sitting here is costing me a good R35 000 and the opportunity cost and the marginal activity was not balancing. I went back to Isibaya and I said, 'to compensate me for my time for me to say no to another gig, this is what I think my time is worth’," she said.