The Sunday News
UNCERTAINTY mars Bulawayo’s participation in this year’s edition of the Big Brother Africa reality TV show, as the city has seemingly developed a negative attitude towards the show, with some stating that it was biased towards the capital city — Harare. A few days ago it was reported that five finalists from Zimbabwe had been scheduled to leave for South Africa for the final auditions, where two finalists would be chosen to represent the country in the show’s 9th season.
Sunday Leisure interviewed Multichoice Zimbabwe public relations and publicity manager, Elizabeth Dziva, in an effort to find out whether there were any participants from Bulawayo this year.
“We cannot make that information available to the public until the actual screening of the show in September,” said Dziva.
However, our sister paper, B-Metro last week revealed that Bulawayo comedian, Ntando Moyo would be auditioning again this year despite failing to make it last season.
Contacted for comment, Ntando said he failed to attend the auditions, as he was nursing his ailing mother.
“I did not go for the auditions because my mother was ill and I had to attend to her,” he said.
Mbonisi Mahonondo popularly known as Mbo Mahocs in the showbiz industry, one of the people believed to have participated in the auditions also denied attending the screening process.
“I did not attend at all. I should say that with where my career stands at the moment I do not think that I am ready to audition for such shows,” said Mahonondo.
Gilmore Moyo of Hunnar Management Agency, also believed to have auditioned for the show, denied ever participating in the screening process.
“People from Bulawayo are just reluctant to participate in this show as they believe it is biased towards Harare. I am sure that is why Zimbabwe has always been having contestants coming from the capital,” said Moyo.
The question now stands; does the City of Kings have a representative for this year’s edition of BBA?
Bulawayo has only ever been represented once in the show by Maneta Mazanhi in BBA’s season 7 in 2012, where she and local musician Rockford “Roki” Josphats were disqualified for bad behaviour.
Since the show was incepted in Africa in 2003, Zimbabwe has consistently been represented and has seen the likes of Munya “Diamond boy” Chidzonga coming out of the show in second place.
He was awarded $300 000 by President Mugabe for his participation in the show, where he uplifted the country, through defending and marketing its values.
Another notable Zimbabwean representative to raise the flag high was Wendall Parson. He is the only Zimbabwean to ever win the competition, walking away with $300 000.
He represented the country alongside TV personality and professional model, Vimbai Mutinhiri, who was evicted in the penultimate weekend of that season of Big Brother Africa.
Another Zimbabwean representative, who managed to draw attention as far as Ghana was Pokello Nare, who not only was a housemate but found love before being evicted. Pokello fell in love with Ghanaian Elikem.
She was a BBA housemate with Munyaradzi Hakeem Mandaza who was also evicted towards the final stages of the reality TV show.
