Bio
Richard Bezuidenhout is a Tanzanian film student who won the second season of the reality competition Big Brother Africa, in 2007.
He stayed in the Big Brother Africa house for 98 days, before winning the competition on Sunday 11 November.
He was voted the winner of the $100,000 prize by seven of the 13 voting countries, beating second-placed Ofunneka Molokwu (Nigeria) and third-placed Tatiana Teresa dos santos Durao (Angola).
He was born in Ilala, Tanzania.
Richard said before the show that if he won the prize money he’d spend it buying film equipment. He is passionate about making movies and considers filmmaker Peter Jackson as his personal inspiration.
A lover of the natural beauty of East Africa, he says that his favourite memory is driving through the Ngorogoro Crater, watching the different wildlife.
He also says that the best places to visit in Tanzania are the Serengeti National Park and the coastal areas, especially Zanzibar.
Big Brother Africa Controversy
Bezuidenhout was one of 12 housemates on Big Brother Africa II, which aired in over 40 countries across Africa on DStv's AfricaMagic channel from Sunday 5 August to Sunday 11 November, 2007.
Richard frequently made news headlines during his stay in the house, largely related to his romance with Angolan housemate Tatiana.
Despite Richard being married and Tatiana engaged, the pair declared their love for each other on the show and engaged in frequent sexual activity, from kissing to nude body massages. They also slept together in the same bed.
When asked before he entered the show what the one thing was he hoped viewers would learn from him during his stay in the house, he answered: "I hope to show them what a committed, married man looks like" (see Q&A below).
After a binge drinking session two weeks before the end of the show, Richard, Ofunneka, Tatiana and Maureen got so drunk paramedics were called to give assistance.
During this binge Richard first stated his desire to "bump" every woman in the house with his "big black kazunga", then led a clearly inebriated Ofunneka into a bedroom and proceeded to insert his fingers into her vagina, which led to howls of protests from numerous viewers, many of whom claimed Ofunneka was too drunk to know what was happening to her.
There were calls for Endemol to halt the production, but producers claimed that since nobody in the house had complained about Richard's behaviour, and that the incident had appeared mutual, no action would be taken.
Two weeks later Richard won Big Brother Africa. His wife Ricky was not present at the live finale, with rumours circulating that she plans to divorce Richard and take half his BB Africa winnings.
At the live finale, Tatiana told host KB Ngakane that if her fiance and Richard's wife didn't want to take them back, the two would continue their romance outside the house.
They were spotted kissing and cuddling at the BB Africa finale after party.