‘My reality show gets me in so much trouble with my family’ – Lasizwe

In most cultures indigenous to the African continent, everything that happens within a family is only supposed to be known by members of that family and nobody else.

So, it’s easy to understand why reality star Lasizwe Dambuza would find himself in hot water for “spilling” family secrets on national television with his MTV reality show ‘Lasizwe: Fake It Til You Make It.’

“I wanna give South Africa something different. 90% of South African reality shows they have some realness to it but I don’t think they have this kinda real that I get into detail with which gets me in so much trouble with my family,” says Lasizwe in an interview with the Citizen.

“You know my family will be like ‘Yoh! You’re exposing family secrets, yoh! You’re showing things on TV!’ But for me, it’s not about exposing family secrets or showing things on TV,” he adds.

His reasons for being so real are actually quite selfless. The young social media sensation is aware of what a young audience he wields so much influence over and he would like them to know that he goes through some dark things and still manages to make it through and not let it turn him into a horrible, broken person.

Lasizwe explained that he would also like to remind people that despite the position he holds in some people’s eyes as a celebrity, he’d like to remind them that he’s still a regular person.

That is also why he felt the need to include some of his more famous friends in the upcoming third season of his show.

In one of the trailers for the upcoming season, we see the likes of Mihlali Ndamase, Norma Gigaba and his very famous sister Khanyi Mbau featuring in different scenarios throughout the season.

“I have a good relationship with my friends and my family that are on the show and it’s with pure intentions. It’s not like you know I want any scandal or ke batla drama. It’s genuinely like I want to have lunch with you the way we’d regularly have lunch and have conversations.”

“You’ll see, during the course of the episodes when we do speak about the issues we address on the show, it’s actually like real things that I go through on the show and things that are happening in our industry and stuff….”

Another moment we’ll get the 411 on is Lasizwe’s infamous interview with podcast host Macgyver MacG Mukwevho of Podcast and Chill with MacG.

Known for his lengthy interviews, MacG’s long-awaited interview with Lasizwe is only 20 minutes long and most of the interview is spent lambasting MacG for not being on time and cutting into another appointment in Lasizwe’s busy schedule.

“90% of the time, I’m a punctual queen and I respect my time as much as I respect other people’s time so I get a little bit frustrated and annoyed if you’re going to come unapologetically and you’re late and you’re just chilled.”

“And you’re like ‘yeah, Lasizwe, relax’ and I’m like ‘relax? Excuse me, you know right now, I could be in somebody’s arms but I’m here and you’re late.’ So I was frustrated but the interview went amazing and I loved it, you know MacG is an amazing host”

One unexpected blessing that she show has brought Lasizwe is getting to spend more time with three of his 10 his siblings than he would ordinarily get to. As a result, he feels as though filming his reality show has brought him closer to Khanyi, his brother Lunga and his sister Shantel who will be joining the show in season 3.

“Because of the show, it really has brought us closer. You know we have so much going on in our lives and like busy schedules and the show kinda brings us together for that 4 or 5 hours that we would have spent once a month or in every six months.”

Despite becoming closer in spirit, everyone has had to get used to social distancing – something that Lasizwe admits has been difficult during the Coronavirus pandemic and national lockdown.

“We were still shooting my show and then after that, u’Daddy Cyril was like ‘babes siya ivala le country’ and I was like ‘oh my God I haven’t completed my show, what the hell am I gonna do now?'”

Luckily, the team found a way to get the season done, however, staying indoors and having to get used to the new way of life has taken its toll on the young star.

“It has affected me mentally, you know… Physically because I used to gym a lot but I don’t gym now because I’m a lazy girl… But also just business in general. I’m grateful that I have positioned myself in a digital sphere where everything is moving digitally so I wasn’t quite impacted the most.”

Kaunda Selisho.

Kaunda is analogue girl navigating a digital world using the perspective provided by news. She has always had a desire to amass a wealth of knowledge on a range of varied topics and this is reflected in the content she produces. As a digitally adept social media user, you can always trust Kaunda to bring you up to speed on what’s going on in the world at any given moment.

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