As fans of pop culture in South Africa, we are quite a fickle bunch. Our entertainment industry is filled with a lot of talented individuals, mostly television presenters. I think we are one of the few countries where television presenters have reached monumental levels of fame that can be equated with the level of fame that American celebrities have acquired. There is one celebrity though,whose star shines above the other stars of the South African entertainment industry. This star is Bonang Matheba and it can be stated that she is one of the most adored and hated celebrities in South Africa.
Bonang Matheba has reached a level of fame that a handful of celebrities have managed to achieve. Nonhle Thema was close to reaching this level but 'twittergate' put the brakes on that rise to greatness. She is a renowned and celebrated television presenter, has an international contract with cosmetics giant Revlon, has a popular reality show and is adored by her 2.98 million followers.
These are very impressive strides but it seems like everytime her star rises we are quick to diminish it instead of celebrating her and her accomplishments. This can be stated as the same attitude that people have towards one of the greatest entertainers of our time, Beyonce. What is it about a succesfull, ambitious and driven woman that makes us want to log on twitter and cuss her out or hype up songs that promote misogyny.
The answer would be that we don't want to see a powerful black woman making strides that have never been done by men before. This was the same case of Winnie-Madikizela Mandela whose contributions were just recently highlighted when she passed away. We as South Africans were quick to celebrate Trevor Noah when he was announced as the host of The Daily Show but we never celebrated When Bonang nabbed the Revlon contract. This needs to stop if we want to inspire young girls to look up to positive role models instead of girls, I mean grown-ass women, who make a career out of parading their thighs (Zodwa Wabantu). In order for more females to thrive in the local entertainment industry we must applaud the ones who are currently killing it and not throw random shade for relevance on social media.
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