Big Brother Africa: The die is cast

The question many are asking is: Who will pocket the US$200 000 grand prize up for grabs? Is it Zimbabwean heartthrob Munya, Nigeria’s Uti, Sheila from Kenya, South Africa’s Lerato or the bushman from Tanzania, Mwisho?

At this point no one knows but come Sunday everything will fall into place when the housemate with the most country votes will be revealed.
Heavy punters will be the first to say that Munya is arguably a frontrunner if last weekend’s results are anything to go by.

During last week’s nomination show, four housemates Munya, Uti, Kaone and Tatiana were put up for possible eviction and sadly it was Tatiana and Kaone who got evicted. The results of that Eviction Show indicated that Munya or simply the Son of the Soil, had NINE country votes followed by Uti with six country votes. Kaone had zero votes and so did Tatiana.

The countries that voted for Munya were Botswana, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Uti got his votes from Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, and the rest of Africa.

Suffice to say although Munya got the most country votes the game isn’t over yet. In fact, his fans — also known as MUFC — have to brace for a busy week voting for him by any means necessary to make sure that the fan-base grows at least three-fold.

But that is not all there is as Munya, who has been on the chopping block for what has become a record in the history of Big Brother, survived eight times! That was no mean achievement as the Zimbabwean housemate also known as the Diamond Boy had no alliances to his credit.

This is one of the lessons learnt from the Big Brother All Stars season that alliances do not matter. In fact, the only alliance one can have is the audience who wield the voting power.
As expected season five had its housemates drawn from previous seasons and most housemates did not find reason to forgive and forget, instead they saw an opportunity to settle old scores.

Uti and Sheila who were both in season three together with Munya came all out to try and settle old scores but Africa saw no reason for revenge. If it wasn’t for Munya’s innocence, he could have left the show just after the first week of his stay in the house.

It was all well and good that Munya survived after being put to test almost every week.
The other housemates would nominate Munya either for strategic reasons or just as a punching bag. For instance, whenever the head of house could not make a decision during the famous swap and replace privilege they would turn to Munya.

It became imperative that the other housemates found Munya an easy target and little did they know that they were making him a strong contender.
While the housemates were busy plotting Munya’s downfall, Africa sympathised and voted for him as he was being “victimised” by other housemates.
This is true in almost every reality show that fans tend to like the “downtrodden”.

But looking at the game from another perspective, this year Africa has been consistent in the way they voted.
From the remaining five housemates Sheila and Lerato who were once evicted to the barn have slim chances to be frontrunners.
Secondly, given that each of the housemates gets a vote from their respective country, it means that the remaining nine country votes would go either way.

But bearing in mind that Sheila, Mwisho, Lerato and Uti are from the same alliance, which was popularly known as the Midnight Crew, they are probably battling for the same country votes.
And on the other hand, Munya who had no alliance from the first day is likely to maintain his fan-base from countries that have backed him throughout the show.
But again there are those countries that we call “fence sitters” that are neither here nor there and these are the countries that Munya has to lure into his camp. Once he succeeds in doing that then it means he is a clear winner. In other words, not only does Munya have to lure the middle of the road voters but he also needs a bit of luck and this is where he needs all those prayers.

If Munya wins the money he would have set a record difficult for any future housemate to beat, considering he survived eight evictions including once as the Head of House in which he saved and replaced himself with another housemate. To Munya’s fans, it is not over until it’s over! Voting begins now!

Viewers can vote for their favourite Housemate in three different ways: via the website, or the WAPsite on your mobile phone, by sending an SMS or using MXit. SMSes are charged per specified network tariffs in the various countries. You can vote 100 times by SMS per mobile number during each voting period.

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