THE fourth season of interior design reality TV competition Win a Home, hosted on SABC3’s Afternoon Express, has been a huge success, capturing the attention of fans across the country.
With a luxury home at the Eye of Africa Golf and Residential Estate in Eikenhof up for grabs, the competition proved to be a life-changing experience for one lucky SABC3 viewer when the winner was announced live on Friday, November 10.
This year, design contestants competed as duos, creating double the drama and entertainment as big personalities showcased fresh ideas and celebrated local design.
In the grand prize competition, six finalists were randomly selected from hundreds of thousands of viewer entries to stand a chance of winning their choice of one of three luxury cluster homes.
Win a Home’s grand prize is the largest of its kind on local television. All three decorated homes boast finishes by Plascon and Caesarstone, bathroom fittings by Geberit, mixers and taps by Grohe, flooring by Belgotex and kitchen appliances by Grundig, bringing the value of each property and its furnishings to over R3-million.
In a unique coincidence, all six finalists were women: Nokuthula Mahlhangu from Johannesburg, Francis Leibrandt from Mossel Bay, Roberta Zyster from Wellington, Lucia Muller from Meyersdal, Zintle Kom from Plumstead, and Shelane Naidoo from Durban.
The finalists had high hopes of finding the all-important lucky key in their safe, but it was Zintle Kom from Plumstead who unlocked future prosperity as a new resident of Eye of Africa Estate.
The single mom from Cape Town had fallen on hard times, and she and her two children were staying with friends. She was busy driving when she got the call that she was a finalist, and was so shocked that she had a minor car accident.
As Zintle celebrated her win, tears of joy streamed down her face, and Kent Gush from Eye of Africa Estate was visibly moved as he welcomed her into the community. It is undoubtedly an exciting new beginning for the scholarship programme manager and her young family. As Zintle describes it, the home is an answer to many prayers and a dream come true.
Winning design duo, viewers’ choice award
Winning design duo Abiah ‘Superstar’ Mahlase and Brad Muttitt (Team Habitat) certainly delivered on their promise to bring razzle-dazzle to the competition with their somewhat outlandish ideas and big concepts.
The fashion-designer couple may have brought their mentor, Amanda Graham of Habitat magazine, close to tears with the amount of trademark chandeliers and artificial grass used in their home, but they stayed true to their vision and created a home that defies convention. The winning design duo walked away with a R100 000 cash prize as the Judges’ Choice, courtesy of main sponsor Private Property.
Throughout Win a Home, viewers were able to vote for their favourite design duo on the Private Property website as part of their entry into the grand prize competition. It was a close call, but Team House and Leisure pipped the others to the post, capturing the hearts of the public to scoop the Viewers’ Choice award and a cash prize of R20 000.
More about the design duos
Best friends Banele Khoza and Tshepo Sealetsa caught the attention of House and Leisure magazine editor Tiaan Nagel from the start. The mentor appreciated Banele’s artistic vision paired with Tshepo’s attention to detail. They impressed the judges with their carefully curated interiors. Banele was also awarded the Gerard Sekoto Award at this year’s prestigious Absa L’Atelier art awards, winning a three-month art residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris.
Before entering this year’s Win a Home contest, Mpho ‘Designer’ Mphaga and Lesego Masekela were ‘strangers united by design’. Lesego and Mpho both studied interior design and, under guidance of mentor Annemarie Meintjes, deputy editor of VISI magazine, they stayed the course by designing their colourful home with a fictional client in mind.
Season 4 of Win a Home was also a full circle moment for judge Donald Nxumalo of DNX Design. As the first design winner in season 1, Donald’s first-hand experience of the competition has given him empathy with the contestants and he has enjoyed judging each room challenge together with Katlego Kondlo of Plascon and the distinguished guest judges.
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