This month local soap opera -literally jumped the reality gap. The glitz and glamour of the multimillion-rand soapie industry was upstaged by real life. Precious Simelane and Lindiwe Chibi fought for their lives while media focused on their mothers’ grief.
With the actresses absent, plot lines in Muvhango and Generations ground to a halt. With Simelane dead and Chibi critically injured, the off-screen dramas reached astonishing proportions. Simelane’s mother, Connie, was called on to counter rumours that her daughter had died as a result of a spell put on her by the family of a child she had hit in a road accident six years ago.
On May 3, the mother of the critically wounded Chibi stormed out of court when she was forced to confront the parents of her daughter’s boyfriend, Dan Mokoena. Mokoena stands accused of shooting Chibi in the head before attempting to hijack a car and then causing an accident in the Soweto suburb of Orlando.
In death Simelane has been elevated to the status of a saint. She was also presenter of the Christian programme Crux. It was reported that she refused to cooperate when an anti-religious subplot was to be introduced into Generations.
After her death she hit headlines when it was claimed that, as her condition deteriorated, she requested that Rhema’s Ray McCauley pray with her. He happened to be in the United States. McCauley wrote to a paper saying that there were 25 available pastors in his ministry who could have counselled the ailing star. But McCauley was hauled over the coals by one editorial note that suggested that instead of criticising its personnel “the church should be making peace with the Simelane family”.
In true soap opera style the grief-stricken public was never offered a proper explanation of the cause of Simelane’s death. All the papers could say was that she was due to undergo heart surgery, and that she “complained of cold flushes and body pains”.
The shooting of Chibi comes less than a week after 10 cast and crew members of Muvhango were involved in a minibus accident. On the way back from Thohoyandou on April 24 the minibus overturned and actor Thokozile Maisela had to be airlifted from the scene. Of course, all word of the injured Muvhango workers disappeared from the media once the shooting of Chibi was announced.
On May 4 the drama was spiced up with the announcement that Chibi and her boyfriend Mokoena were “crazy in love”. Like a scene from Muvhango, one newspaper noted that the shooting had happened at a traditional baby-welcoming ceremony at the home of Chibi’s mother.
Wits academic and journalist Muff Andersson, who has written a master’s thesis on local soap opera, said: “I’m interested in the issue of masculinity in this shooting. On the one hand you’ve got Chibi, who is the star. Then you’ve got Mokoena — he’s not a star, he’s less than her. The idea that the couple was ‘crazy in love’ works along standard evergreen soap opera storylines. Readers will wonder, ‘Will true love -triumph?’ It was love interrupted — and we must wonder, ‘Will they get back together again?’
“But the crimes Mokoena is accused of — like hijacking a car — are not linked to high passion but rather the crisis of masculinity. It’s a violent response to feeling emasculated.
“A lot of political issues in soapies, such as violence and abuse, get translated into moments of passion, and that allows audiences to accept them quite easily.”
In similar incidents elsewhere in the world, in 2003 French television actress Marie Trintignant fell and was fatally injured during a quarrel with her musician boyfriend, Bertrand Cantat. In 1995 Latin singing star Selena was murdered by the president of her fan club.
In Rio de Janero in 2003 Brazil’s top soap opera stars headed a march of 50 000 people in aid of Brazil Without Guns.
This week Muvhango executive producer Duma ka Ndlovu announced that the show would be holding auditions for an actress to replace Chibi. Local Muvhango fans are, no doubt, eager to know who that will be. Then, perhaps, they will be able to put reality behind them, and get on with the show.