On Sunday night South African events co-ordinator Lerato Sengadi was sent packing from the Big Brother house after seven countries (and the rest of Africa) voted to evict her instead of her bossom buddy Bertha.
I caught up with her for us yesterday morning to see what sick goss she had to share. Here it is:
*BB camera zooms in, out and in again on three beats.*
Tashi: Max - why, why, why,
why - how could you not have known he was your biggest mistake??
Lerato: When you’re in the house there’s things that you don’t see and you precive certain things in a certain way so I didn’t see it coming – I didn’t think it was my biggest mistake, I still don’t think so.
Tashi: Okay ‘cos I’m fully conviced he was your biggest mistake.
Lerato: The thing is, you had the opportunity to see it all and you saw the stuff I missed so now that you say that, well, you know, it's a new opinion.
Tashi: One of the many reasons is because of this whole coupling thing that’s going on - I would have preferred it if you’d stayed a free agent throughout.
Lerato: Hooking up with Max was never pre-planned, I didn’t go in there thinking: “Ooh, I’m going to look for a guy and we’re going to hook up and be this couple or whatever.” It was just something that happened, you know we started as friends and we still are friends.
Tashi: Do you think that all the hooking up that’s happened is a security blanket thing for everyone?
Lerato: For everyone else, I think so - for me it definitely wasn’t, it wasn’t a strategy, it wasn’t a security blanket of any sort but at the moment I think that some of them are just happening for the convenience of: “Okay, I’ve got one more person on my side.”
Tashi: It wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t ask you about this ‘cos I asked Max about it – how did you feel about the fact that Max had a girlfriend on the outside? Did you think about that?
Lerato: It was something we had discussed and I asked him about and he did give me some answers and I said: “You know, the ball is in your court, you’re a grown man, you make the decision,” and he made his decision. It was choice that he had made but the feelings were mutual.
Tashi: Did you think about her?
Lerato: Not really, not really, (laughs).
Tashi: On the very first night you said Kwaku’s a bullshitter etc - if he’s such a bullshitter how come did you gang up with him specifically?
Lerato: Because he stopped bullshitting (laughs), he stopped his whole casanova, you know grrrrr thing and we had some proper conversations and that’s when we discovered that we have a lot in common and started gravitating towards each other.
Tashi: Do you think you and Bertha bullied the other housemates?
Lerato: I wasn’t bullying anybody, nobody stood up for themselves anyway so I was just voicing my opinion. They had the option of voicing their opinion right back at me but they chose not to say anything that’s why I came across as being bullying - it was just them being chicken basically and not standing up for themselves, I wasn’t bullying anyone.
Tashi: After you were evicted you told KB that you thought one of the reasons you were voted out was because you were too much for everyone – too big, too loud, too much and that –
Lerato: I didn’t say too big.
Tashi: I mean as a character (laughs) –
Lerato: Okay. (laughs)
Tashi: If that’s what you thought they were thinking - why didn’t change so they didn’t nominate you?
Lerato: Because I’m not going to go in there and change who I am to make other people comfortable. I mean that would make me uncomfortable - I went in there the person that I am and I stuck to being true to myself the whole time. That’s why I didn’t tone down just so that everyone likes me more or doesn’t nominate me and keeps me in the house.
Tashi: How much did you think about what we were thinking while watching?
Lerato: I did think about it times but it reaches a point where you’re living in your own little planet called the Big Brother house and that’s where you live day to day - there are times where you completely forget that there are people outside or that there’s cameras so I did think about it once in a while.
Tashi: Are others thinking about it?
Lerato: I think others are thinking about it more than I did.
Tashi: Who’s thinking about it a lot?
Lerato: I know there are people who are thinking about the consequences of their actions when as soon as they leave the house so it’ll be interesting.
Tashi: Who in particular?
Lerato: Bertha I think is one of them because she vocalized it to me. I’d say Bertha in particular is the one I know for sure and I’d say Richard’s definitely thinking about the consequences of his actions.
Tashi: Do you think he
is though?? I mean you challenged him about having two wives etc and it didn’t seem to be a problem for him.
Lerato: The thing with Richard, I think he does think about it, but he just pretends it doesn’t exist. That’s why I kept asking him: “So Richard you know, blah blah blah blah,” but I think he does have a guilty conscience. Sometimes he’d do something with Tatiana and then go kiss his wife’s picture or something which says to me that he does think about what’s happening outside.
Tashi: That one night when you were talking to him about it I was dying for you to say: “So, how do you think your wife’s feeling right this moment?”
Lerato: Ja ja, everytime we’d talk about his wife and those kind of questions he’d say, “I feel uncomfortable talking about this,” and he’d leave.
Tashi: You’ve been the only one who’s questioned him about it.
Lerato: As I said, everyone else in that house never really said what they thought, or even attempted and I wanted to know so I asked him.
Tashi: Who would you like to see win?
Lerato: I’d like to see Ofunneka win.
Tashi: The problem with her winning is that she’s fulfilled the role of cleaning, not being outspoken and cooking for everyone etc.
Lerato: She’s flown under the radar definitely, she cooks, she cleans, she’s definitely flying under the radar and she’s playing all sides - she’s definitely playing all sorts and I’d commend her for that because people just don’t see it.
There you go - I’m just watching a bit of the show now - and she’s hosing herself, "kwa kwa kwa" but she’s definitely doing it very well that she’s playing everyone. She’s friends with everyone, she’ll never do anything to offend anyone in particular and people just kind of forget her when they go into the diary room.
Tashi: Yes she has done but it is worrying that she’ll fly under the radar too much. What will she do next?
Lerato: I think she’s playing it very safe and if she keeps going she actually could win, definitely win because the others are just too absorbed in herself and they dismiss her. They dismiss everything that she does.
Tashi: I’ve been wondering whether now that they know she’s had no nominations after the fake eviction, that maybe they’ll give her a vote but I think everyone’s got too many issues between them.
Lerato: Between themselves and I mean you don’t really want to get rid of the guy that cooks four meals a day, cleans the house, does all that stuff. Nobody wants to get rid of that guy - when she was gone they were like, “Oh we’re going to starve,” - I even said it once and then took matters into my hands but they definitely feel like she’s a mother figure almost in the house.
Tashi: Who would like you to see leave next?
Lerato: Maureen - Maureen for me wasn’t very exciting, I felt she didn’t have a particular personality and the fact that she talked to herself all the time really started to annoy me. Out of all the people there, she was just like, I don’t know, the very least interesting out of the eight that remained.
Tashi: Do you think she’s mad?
Lerato: I don’t think she’s mad but she just has a habit of - she’ll talk half a sentence to me and the other half she’ll continue while walking away and continue it talking to herself, I don’t think she’s mad though.
Tashi: What did you discover being in such a small place with a bunch of strangers?
Lerato: It was difficult initially but all you can do is try to adapt to the situation and try to cope with what you’ve got. The hardest part for me was having to share a toilet with 11 other people. That was really, really difficult because oftenthere were que’s to use the loo - that was quite a hurdle for me to get over.
Tashi: Did you get bored?
Lerato: Oh
yes. (laughs) There were days where I’d just think, “Oh gosh,” I’d read everyone’s books and you just - I started counting how many lights there were in the lounge and got dizzy and stopped doing that. I went outside, got sunburnt, came back into the house – there were definitely days were I was bored.
Tashi: Your relationship with Bertha - what was that about? Why did you hook up?
Lerato: I think it was just a natural gravitation - after Meryl left, then Max left, before he left she kind of gravitated towards us and we started chilling and it blossomed.
Tashi: So what do you want to see from the show as you watch now that you’re gone?
Lerato: I don’t think I’m going to watch much of the show - I mean what is there to watch? You can only watch the married guy grope the girl that pretends she doesn’t understand English so many times on the counter before … -
Tashi: (laughs)
Lerato: I really want to see what’s going to happen once it’s just Tatiania, Richard - the alleged Big 5. I’d love to see who’s going to start turning on each other, who’s going to vote for each other, who’s going to backstab who so that should be, you know.
Tashi: Tatiana’s been flying under the radar in such a big way and I don’t understand. Surely she’s been annoying everyone and yet she hardly gets any nominations - she seems to be very safe.
Lerato: The thing with Tatiana is that I called her out early on in the game - I said I don’t trust her, she’s very smart and conniving, it’s just that she’s like: “Oh my God, she’s the cute girl, she’s quirky” or whatever - you know she walks around in her thong and the people in the house think: “Ah no, she’s so cute, she doesn’t really understand English sometimes," and they feel bad for her - I saw it right from the get go.
Tashi: I didn’t realize that they see her as not understanding.
Lerato: They definitely think that she doesn’t really understand some of the stuff - and she’ll ask you: “Please explain this, I don’t understand,” and bat her eyelids.
Tashi: That’s so interesting - I wonder when they’re gonna wake up to that.
Lerato: Smell the coffee - I can’t wait.
Tashi: What are you going to be up to now?
Lerato: Right now I just want to have a bit of fun. I’m looking forward to travelling soon, seeing other African countries, tasting their food and seeing if its all the way they portrayed it.
Tashi: How did your mom respond to the wild things you got up to?
Lerato: She was surprised ‘cos I don’t live at home so she’s not privy to all of that stuff but she knows I’m a good person and that I didn’t do anything I wouldn’t ordinarily do.
Tashi: Did she say anything to you? Like: “how could you have?”
Lerato: “I didn’t know you smoke!” That was like the biggest shocker for her.
Tashi: Did you find it difficult knowing your mom was watching?
Lerato: Initially it was like: “Argh,” but then I was like - it’s not like I can hide it and I’ll deal with the repurcussions of my actions on the outside.
Tashi: I suppose she got to know you as she’s never seen you before.
Lerato: Now she knows 100% the real me.
Tashi: She was very sweet standing waiting for you on Sunday night I thought.
Lerato: My little super-hero.
Ends