Drunkenness, cursing and evictions
All the Big Brother dramatics
IT TOOK less than a week for Big Brother Stargame housemates to turn Africa’s hottest reality television show into a freak show that is characterised by disorder, disrespect and drunkenness.
The housemates’ behaviour irked Big Brother so much that he decided to ban alcohol indefinitely in the non-celeb Downville house, and that was not even the biggest news of the week.
During the live eviction show on Sunday evening, both Tanzanian housemates – Hilda Reiffenstein and Juliano Joseph Batalia – as well as Teclar Mazanhi from Zimbabwe were evicted. However, in an unexpected twist, Teclar’s sister, Maneta, was moved to the celebrity Upville house.
Kenyan hip-hop star Jackson “Prezzo” Ngechu’s repeated attacks and constant gossiping about South African model Babalwa “Barbz” Mneno is what kept social networking sites abuzz last week.
Since the beginning of the week, Prezzo started calling her names like “Tyra Banks” and “Miss Mademoiselle” and how she just wants the Upville girls to worship her.
The King William’s Town-born model didn’t take kindly to the jabs and refused to speak to him when Nigeria’s Oluwabimpe “Goldie” Harvey tried to calm them down.
Just as Africa thought the two had smoked the peace pipe, Prezzo started again, and came down really hard on Barbz about her age, “not having a career or family” and calling her “ugly” around midnight after the Saturday night party.
He said Barbz should leave the house to work on getting married and having kids before she turns 35. Prezzo went on to brag about his wife and daughter and how Kenya was behind him all the way, which he claimed was not the case for Barbz in South Africa.
The 34-year-old Barbz just sat sarcastically cheering Prezzo on as he dissected her. “You know everything. Go Prezzo, go Prezzo,” she said as she listened to Prezzo tear her apart.
As if Saturday night was not enough, Prezzo continued talking about Barbz to the Upville ladies at every opportunity he had. Goldie and Mampi Mukape of Namibia took it upon themselves to talk to him – at different times – telling him he was wrong and should apologise.
It was later in the afternoon, after he had repeatedly said that Barbz “deserved it”, that he finally called Barbz to the garden and apologised.
He said he didn’t mean all the hurtful things he said to Barbz. “It doesn’t make me less of a man to apologise,” he said. The teary Barbz accepted his apology. “I wouldn’t go out of my way to annoy anyone,” she said.
She later shared the news with Goldie and Mampi, but said it would have made her feel much better if Prezzo had apologised on his own accord without being pushed by the girls.
In the Downville house, during Saturday night’s party, there were a lot of altercations, cursing and blatant disrespect for Big Brother’s rules in Downville, and Biggie was not having it. He summoned the housemates into the lounge around noon on Sunday before dropping the bomb.
“You have been showing not only disregard for Big Brother’s rules, but also failed to show respect for yourselves and one another. Firstly, and with immediate effect, Big Brother will not be supplying any alcohol to the house until further notice. This decision will only be reviewed when Big Brother is satisfied that housemates are treating each other with the necessary degree of respect.”
Big Brother told the housemates which areas needed immediate attention. “Housemates must all moderate their language. Housemates may not provoke, taunt or bully each other. Housemates must moderate intake of alcohol,” said Big Brother.
Some housemates looked scared while others were amused by the announcement. Big Brother did not take kindly to the giggling, saying: “Housemates are still finding this funny, surprisingly,” after which there was silence in the house.
Biggie also ordered the housemates to “apologise genuinely” to each other for their rude and offensive behaviour, talk to each other in a respectful way and comply with all the rules in the Downville rule book.
Before the end of the live show, housemates from Liberia and Sierra Leone – the newest additions to the Big Brother Africa show – were nominated for eviction. — Phumza Sokana Ntongana