Ayanda’s name game wrecks his wedding Mxolisi wants PLUS! Mondli dead!
Family, tradition and love should bring Ayanda and Smangele together for their wedding, but instead they’re being torn apart.
Normally fans would be holding our breath in anticipation as Smangele and Ayanda’s (Sihle Ndaba and Kay Sibiya) wedding day arrives, but we’re ready to give up on these two on Wednesday 9 November. As Smangele’s friend GC (Khaya Dladla) tells the bride, “You’ve been up and down worse than the Rand/Dollar situation.” Everything about their big day is dodgy. No formal invitations went out, which has deeply offended Ayanda’s birth mother Lindiwe Xulu (Dawn Thandeka King). There were no lobola negotiations, so spiritual advisor Hlengiwe (Gugu Gumede) has a bone to pick with the bride. And the bride’s brother Mastermind (Ntokozo Dlamini) is refusing to attend the wedding.
Plus, there’s that fake pregnancy – Smangele found out on Monday 26 September that she’d had a phantom pregnancy and she has been trying to get pregnant by Ayanda for real ever since – which is problematic since almost everyone knows that Ayanda is really in love with Sibahle the prostitute (Londeka Mlaba). The truth is glaringly obvious: Ayanda and Smangele probably wouldn’t be talking marriage at all if it wasn’t for that pregnancy. As mother of the groom, Zandile (Leleti Khumalo) really has egg on her face. “Zandile is not at all chuffed because she wants this thing to happen and it’s an embarrassment for the family. It’s not just Ayanda involved,” says Leleti. But who’s really getting married here – is it Ayanda Mdletshe… or Ayanda Xulu?
THE PERFECT BRIDE
For the groom’s mom Zandile, Ayanda marrying Smangele would set him firmly on the path to becoming a spiritual Mdletshe son, with the perfect pastor’s wife. As a result, she has been shoving Ayanda down the aisle as fast as she can go. “She’s hoping that Smangele will change Ayanda, because right now he doesn’t know whether he’s coming or going. It’s the wedding, it’s changing the surname, it’s identity problems. Ayanda is still looking for himself,” admits Leleti. “You have to let your child choose for themselves. Zandile knows that, but as a mother, sometimes you know that you’re doing wrong things but you think that it has to be done. Most of the time, she doesn’t consult Ayanda in arranging whatever is good for Ayanda at that moment anyway.”
And if Ayanda decides not to be a Mdletshe, what does Zandile have? Her husband (Bheki Mkhwane) ran away in disgrace in 2015 and her younger son (Sipho Mhlongo) was killed the same year. Ayanda is all that she has left. Aside from this, the fact that Smangele is pregnant with Ayanda’s child outweighs any considerations Zandile might have about him not really following his heart.
MAD MOTHER
As Zandile plots her son’s wedding and future, his other mother is sitting reading a magazine and sulking bitterly. But her daughter Nosipho (Nompilo Maphumulo) is determined to make Lindiwe go, even if she has to carry her to the church herself. But it all blows up in Nosipho’s face on Wednesday 9 November when the guest pastor asks if anyone has any objections to the wedding – and Lindiwe leaps out of her seat and announces, “Ayanda is standing there as a Mdletshe, not a Xulu. He is not a Mdletshe!” What a wedding crasher… and she’s not wrong either. With such an important legal issue hanging in the air, not even the skimpiest civil ceremony can take place, let alone the cultural traditions that will unite Ayanda and Smangele’s families and give their child its place in the world.
MONSTER-IN-LAW
While Lindiwe gloats on Monday 14 November, Zandile paces around her house furious and ashamed of the failed wedding. And when Smangele sobs about her disappointment later that day, Zandile listens with a loving heart… until Smangele lets slip that Lindiwe had previously asked her to discuss which surname Smangele was going to take. A betrayed Zandile snatches the tea out of Smangele’s hands and accuses her of “snuggling up to the enemy”, then kicks her out of the house. Oh dear! At this rate, that fake baby will never get a daddy.