‘The Real Housewives of Durban’ season 4 reunion special was giving but ‘The Ultimate SA’ was a let-down

LOCAL reality shows have become our kryptonite of late. The two making the biggest noise, especially on social media, have been “The Real Housewives of Durban” (RHOD) season 4 and “The Ultimatum South Africa”.

When a show is giving, especially with the scandalous drama, fans, who have been heavily invested in the journey of the cast, want to get their burning questions answered.

In this regard, RHOD was the only show that delivered in its two-part reunion episode. Sadly, “The Ultimatum South Africa” was underwhelming.

Sigh, maybe if they had a MaBlerh unpacking the upsets, it would have been the perfect wrap to the first season. But a little more on that in a bit.

Let’s first take a look at RHOD, which was commendably handled by MaBlerh for the second time in a row. He left no stone unturned in getting to the bottom of the catfights and bullying.

He unmasked the real puppet master in the group after fingers were pointed at Sorisha Naidoo, who was tickled by the power she had been secretly wielding as an OG of the series.

This season, the cliques were clear. There was #Jokuma with Jojo Robinson, Nonku Williams and Maria Valaskatzis, who buried the hatched with Jojo after the two had a serious fallout in season three.

Maria, in the previous season, was on the receiving end of a lot of body shaming, with Jojo telling her to deflate her lips.

The group was completed by newcomer Zamaswazi “Zama” Ngcobo, an actress brought into the group by Sorisha. She ruffled feathers from the get-go and her gossiping landed her in hot water on several occasions.

In the second camp, Sorisha and her BFF Slindile “Slee” Wendy Ndlovu bonded with the newbies, Nqobile “Angel” Ndlela and Ameigh Thompson.

Of course, the drama ironically started from episode one of the new season. Sorisha initiated a kumbaya gathering, which went south fast when Angel took offence after being labelled as the baby in the group.

Hot-tempered and triggered by the reference, she kept up that energy into Maria’s “gusband” (gay BFF) event. This time, Maria introduced Neil Ramautar while keeping things civil with former gusband Ruan Scheepers, who chose Jojo in the season 3 drama.

As the series progressed, Zama’s issue with Ameigh intensified, especially when she accused Ameigh of faking her publicised hijacking incident.

Not one to back down, Ameigh gave back as good as she got and was unrelenting in putting Zama in her place.

Slee’s beef with Nonku worsened when she met RD to find out what happened and why he scammed Nonku.

Let’s just say that between the girls’ trips to the Drakensberg and Namibia and the shindigs held, including an impromptu fashion show of Slee’s Financially Overstretched line, much went down. Let’s not forget about those fertility issues.

And it ended up going below the belt with chairs flying and hands being thrown.

Sjoe! MaBlerh had his work cut out for him in the finale, where he addressed Nonku and Slee’s long-standing beef. He put Angel in the hot seat for her impulsive actions.

The blind loyalty in the groups was also discussed. Of course, the highlight was the animosity between Maria and Sorisha over Neil.

Maria was asked about her dislike of Sorisha, which she defended to the hilt in the same way she did with Neil throughout the show.

Whenever Sorisha tried to clarify why she had an issue with him, Maria became tone-deaf. She resented Sorisha, that much was clear from the time she joined the show last season and accused Sorisha of trying to be the Queen Bee.

I have to commend Sorisha, though, she handled herself with such grace throughout the series, even when Maria was downright rude to her.

The reunion got heated, with Sorisha eventually saying her piece and walking off. MaBlerh handled the tension like a pro. He also addressed the toxic masculinity issue dominating the season.

And he humbled certain cast members for their hypocritical tendencies.

Overall, the reunion was giving, with plenty of tea spilt.

Back to “The Ultimatum South Africa”, which had Mzansi in their feelings, especially about Khanya. Vilified on social media, she made for great television though as she brought the drama and then some. As did Ruth.

The series was hosted by Salamina Mosese and Tshepo “Howza” Mosese, but the reunion episode was handled by Salamina.

She was nice. But nice does not a great reality show make. And the reunion ended up being a disappointment.

Everyone wanted her to unpack Khanya’s behaviour, from her body shaming Sizakele to being physically abusive towards beau Nkateko as well as Isaac (her trial husband). And, can we just talk about her bad weave in the season while she was trash-talking everyone else?

Motherhood might have softened her but, gosh, that was an anticlimax of a discussion with her. Did anyone even buy that apology?

I’m glad Ruth was her unapologetic self about the love she wanted. Issac’s commitment issues were barely touched on.

Yay, on getting Lebo and Nolla back after he cheated and they quit the experiment. But that breakup was tepid.

Talk about the ultimate flop. Hopefully, the second season, if there is one, will be better.

∎ “The Real Housewives of Durban” season 4 is streaming on Showmax; “The Ultimatum South Africa” is streaming on Netflix.