Big Brother Africa: The Fast And The Furious!

EISH BBA peoples, what’s going on in this season of Big Brother Africa? Seems like almost all of the housemates either have some serious issues or they need to go for anger-management counselling.

From cat fights to grumbles, arguments and moans to ugly mudsling matches and even physical fights, the BBA house seems to have morphed into an episode out of ‘The Jerry Springer Show’.Still reeling from the reverberations of the MASSIVE fight between Kaone, Uti and Meryl, housemates have certainly been on edge lately. Either that or everyone’s hormones have gone completely haywire, some of the ladies are pre-menstrual or the pressure of being in the house 24/7, with barely any privacy, is fast starting to affect each housemate in a different way. The latest in a long line of disagreements and arguments featured a war of words between allies and friends, Mwisho and Uti and a nasty exchange that even turned physical between Barnmates, Lerato and Hannington. First Mwisho and Uti had a bit of an exchange after Uti volunteered to donate the housemates’ food without consulting them. Mwisho, usually the peace-loving one, took issue with Uti, this week’s HoH, accusing him of an autocratic style of leadership. Prompting a quick, machine gun-style war of words, Mwisho told Uti that he was not God, while Uti responded that Mwisho could die or kill himself for all he cared. Looks like the power of being HoH might just have made Uti a bit heady. The usually easy-going and fun Nigerian housemate told Biggie, that he thought he was a natural born leader. I think Uti has the potential to be a great leader, if he can just manage to reign in that ego of his. KICK OUT MALARIA
This week’s task is all about Malaria. One of the biggest problems in Africa. For the whole week, housemates are required to participate in various tasks that educate, entertain and inform the public about Malaria. In addition to taking part in debates and discussions surrounding Malaria, housemates also have to learn how to treat a mosquito net, will play a basketball game and soccer game – using the net, and submit a video clip in which they talk about their personal experience with the disease. Both the barnmates and the remaining All Stars have shown their commitment to this task by wagering 100 per cent.DEBATE GONE WRONGAs part of the task, the barnmates were discussing the economic effects of malaria. With Lerato sipping on wine, it was a bit of a struggle for the other housemates to express themselves clearly, because she kept interrupting them to discuss her own opinion. This was evidenced by the fact that Paloma felt the need to bring Lerato’s constant interruptions to her attention, when she kept interrupting Paloma’s Barn guest, her sister Chibesa.Despite this, or maybe because of it, Lerato continued interrupting the group with her own questions and opinions. Well, everyone basically ignored her and this seemed to annoy the headstrong South African even more. Swearing and muttering, she said that if they didn’t want to listen to her or answer her questions, they should just tell her to shut up and she would go inside where she could continue drinking her wine. Jokingly, the barnmates intimated that she could just as well go inside. When someone asked if her absence might not influence their wager, Hannington – who was chairing the discussion, made the comment I am sure he will live to rue ‘we are not going to be babies’.Things escalated quickly from there. Lerato stormed out of the house to confront Hannington. Talking over each other, the two faced off. When Hanni stood up, as if to say he had had enough of Lerato’s nonsense, she got right up in his face. He pushed her face away (non-violently, but a definite push) causing her to push him (somewhat violently). The pushing became shoving (more violent) and the shoving turned hectic (I think at one point Lerato may even have hit Hannington with the bottle she was holding in her hand, or tried to) and that’s when all hell broke loose! SHEILA TO THE RESCUEThere was shouting and screaming. Everyone was up on their feet, but it was Sheila who threw herself between the two antagonists to prevent the situation escalating. Sheila was apoplectically angry, shocked at Hannington’s actions. There were tears and more tears as housemates dealt with the unnecessary fight. Many of the housemates, as well as some members of the public, seem to blame Hannington for ‘hitting’ Lerato. Others are pointing fingers at the South African diva.I have to say that I think the whole thing has been blown out of proportion. Both Lerato and Hannington are to blame but I think Lerato was clearly looking for a fight. Her behaviour was obnoxious and her reaction to Hannington pushing her away from right in front of his face was exaggerated. I’m not saying that it’s ever OK for a man to respond physically to a woman, no matter how badly he is provoked, but I feel it is a little unfair to place all the blame squarely on Hannington’s shoulders. The aftermath of the fight has left Hannington thinking of leaving the game. He is deeply remorseful and apologised almost immediately after the incident, first to the entire group and then to Lerato personally. The Ugandan housemate has told Biggie how ashamed he is of himself, saying that there was no way to justify his actions, that he allowed his emotions to get out of control and that he didn’t feel he deserved forgiveness. Approached for comment yesterday, MultiChoice Namibia said that Big Brother is taking the incident very seriously and that both Hannington and Lerato will receive psychological counselling. An official statement is in the pipeline, so watch out for that. * Did you see the fight go down? Do you think Hannington deserves forgiveness? What do you feel about Lerato’s role in what happened? Send your views and opinions to bba@namibian.com.na. To watch the video clip of the fight between Hannington and Lerato, type in the following link: bigbrotherafrica.dstv.com/News/3096/Lerato-Hannington-Fight.html- Keep watching all the action go down 24/7 on DStv Channel 198 and don’t forget to catch the daily highlights packages on M-Net Africa, M-Net Africa Channel 102.

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