Who is responsible for this subpar cast? Who thought Nonkanyiso Conco, Ayanda Ncwane and Mabusi Seme (to name a few) are/were Housewives material? I've watched the US Housewives franchises for years and have recently jumped on the Real Housewives of Dubai band-wagon and I must say, the South African Housewives franchises miss the mark and the biggest reason for this is: CASTING. Like the other Housewives shows filmed and produced in South Africa, the Real Housewives of Durban just feels wrong, and feels like something is missing. It feels overly produced, like the 'reality' and personality in the show has been sucked out of it.
With a great, well thought out cast, this show and the other local Housewives shows could really become genuinely interesting shows. For instance, the only cast members who made sense in the Housewives brand were Sorisha Naidoo and Kgomotso Ndungane. Annie Ludick could have had a lot more room to shine had she been cast with a different group.
This business of casting well-known names has and will continue to work against local Housewives shows. Names aren't personalities. Read that again. Whoever is responsible for casting could get some random, aspirational (key word!) woman whose name is not well known and she could grow on us.
And speaking of that, my goodness, could we please stop having influencers and celebrity-lites cast for this and other Housewives shows? Ayanda Ncwane isn't Housewives material! Londie London isn't Housewives material! Very quickly into watching the first episodes of every season, it really began to feel like whoever is calling the shots with this show has never watched a single episode of the "original" Housewives shows and has no knowledge of the big Housewives shows and what they are like. The women cast on this show barely had any chemistry, and their "friendships" seemed very superficial, dare I say, fake. Who wants to watch that?
I'm pretty sure the women I named above are great people and are good at what they do (Thobile is her best on Uthando Nesthembu, there was no reason for her on this show), they don't fit the overall Housewives brand. And I know they have a different cultural context. I just don't think that was exploited for the show's benefit.
Cast some aspirational women. Women who do or have done BIG things. Show these women doing these BIG things. Hell. Cast some professionals in the mix! Cast some MAJOR entrepreneurs. Cast women who do the absolute MOST for NGO's. Cast some BUSY people (home renovations, property flippers, business owners who don't mind showing us their 'behind the scenes', big time models actually modelling, if they are married, let's see them with their spouses, let's see them with their children, let's see some family outings). Anything but an influencer! And if you absolutely must involve influencers, cast them as friends of the show and not as full time cast members.
It's been how many seasons, and I still feel like some of the women haven't shown us any/enough of their major milestones (big birthday celebrations, big baby showers, big housewarming parties, engagement parties, big business launches, buying a home, recovering from a health scare, graduation parties, sending children to university, etc). Are they doing nothing with their lives? Do they support any social causes (education for underprivileged children, supporting pregnant teens and their education, homelessness, disability - something)??? Are they passionate about anything at all?
Also, some of the women are very private about their personal lives. Reality TV isn't for them and they must be let go. Housewives are open about their lives (divorces, relationships/dating, infertility and pregnancy, loss and grief, motherhood, sisterhood). There's a sense of realness that this show lacks. And this is unfortunate because it has the potential to become one of the most complex and authentic Housewives franchises based on their diverse cultural/national context alone.
Today, a Housewife has a 'look' and her house has a 'look'. But if you watch the first seasons of most of the first ever (international) Housewives shows, you'll see they used the cast's personalities as the foundation of the show and that is why these shows took off. Wealth and glamour are secondary. Without personality, these shows would have been hollow and uninteresting. That is what the Real Housewives of Durban is and has been, and will continue to be unless the whole cast is reset and the priority becomes selecting women with personalities that are great for reality television who also fit the overall Housewives brand.
