Here is a recap of last night's KK episode.
Story 1
In the first story we meet Langanani Bilankulu who faxed Khumbulekhaya when she saw a picture of a man who looked like her father on KK. The photo had been sent in by someone who was looking for their father. In responding to the call, Langanani was hoping to help the person find his father, but she also wants to meet the sibling she never knew she had.
And so we meet Tshepo Walter Lerumo who Lives in Mabopane. Thepo wrote to KK looking for his father, whom he had only ever seen in photos. Since his mother has sadly passed on, all he has to go on are photos. Tshepo, like so many others who look for parents on KK, needs his father’s help in paving his path as his things are not going well. He says he went mad in 1992 and was taken to a sangoma by his family. He got better but was sick again in 1996, and the sangoma said he must get “idlozi" from his father’s side or get a Tsonga sangoma to perform some rituals for him. Not knowing his dads whereabouts, they opted for the Tsonga sangoma, and after the said rituals were performend, he was never sick again.
Armed with this information, KK set off to introduce Tshepo to his alleged sister,Langanani. On arrival, Langanani confirms that the man does indeed look like her father, and offers to take Tshepo to this man, who lives in Malamulele. Langanani herself has not seen her father in ages because of a disagreement between her and his father’s wife.
Like that, they set off to find this man, Wilson Bilankulu, and at first, do not find him where they expected to, but find him at his brother’s place, where the entire family is gathered for some sort of celebration.
They sit down and explain, only to be met by man who doesn’t know what they are talking about. Wilson says he doenst know Tshepo’s mother, and even when he shows him her photo, he still doenst know her. He then show him the picture that he thought was of Wilson, and Wilson say it is not him.And so like that, he denies being the father, fuelling Tshepo’s dissappointent.
I must say, I myself felt bad for Tshepo, I can imagine the hope he had begun to feel.
The second story was particularly sad, maybe its because it’s never easy to see a grown man cry, but Thapelo Seoka did shed some tears.
Thapelo Seoka from Thabatsonae wrote to KK wanting to resolve a dispute between him and his brother that has led to the detriment of his family.
Thapelo was born in Gasmere, Evaton in 1953. He and his brother have not spoken in 13 yrs over political differences. They come from a family 5 girls and 4 boys. Their father died some time back and their mother was a prophet in church.
The family moved to Bekkersdal(he was mentioning a lot of years, I got confused). In Bekkersdal, he joined the Black Consciousness Movement. As part of his training, he was sent to Mozambique,Tanzania, Angola and Russia, and trained to be MK soldier. All this time, his family has assumed him dead as they knew nothing about his political affiliations. When Thapelo came back, he was sentenced to 25 yrs in prison. His family saw in the papers that he was in Robben island, and his mother and sister in law went to see him. He was only released in 1990 with the Tokyos and Mandelas(well, around the same time). When he got out, he joined the ANC and launched Bekkersdal Youth Conference. The problem was that Bekkersdal was an Azapo dominated community, and his brother was a member of Azapo. At the launch of the conference, there was attack and his brother was there. The result was a lot of blood shed, and one of his brothers was stoned to death. Thapelo asked his brother for the fued to be sorted out verbally, but he refused, and like that, the two became sworn enemies. Even their mother was subjected to a political death after she was burnt alive in her house, and his brother did not go to funeral.
Thapelo and the KK team went to go find his brother where he works, but on arrival, he had already left, and so they set off for his home.
When the KK team explained the reason for their arrival, he told them of the pain he still felt, and thus did not want to see Thapelo, to Thapelo’s inevitable disappointment.
So yet another story with a not so successful ending.
In the third story, Slumko wants to meet his father. Moyiseli Hasheni from East London. Moyiseli is married Nomzamo and together, they have two kids. He has heard from neighbours that his picture was on KK, and a boy claiming to be his son was looking for him.
Moyiseli explaines that some years ago when he was living in the city of gold as a professional boxer, he and his then girlfried, now wife Nomzamo had problems and separated. During this time, he met a Motaung girl, with whom he fathered a son, Slumko. Slumko lived with his maternal grandparents, but Moyiseli would see him during weekends. When the child was 1 year old, Moyiseli’s father arrived in Gauteng to summon his son back to EL. Enquiring about what to do with his son, his father told him to keep quite about the child’s existence because the child didn’t belong to his family as he had not married the mother.
Nomzamo, Moyiseli’s wife expressed how she is worried that her Christian husband's reputation will be tarred, as the impression people will get is that he neglected his son. (She then begins to explain something about how it was Slumko’[s mother fault, I lost concentration here as it wasn’t making sense)
Also, while she acceps Slumko as her husbands child and thus her own, she says he cannot live with them in the house, but rather with his paternal grandparents. Why? Well, because Slumko is at an age where he has been taught certain ways of life, and coming to live in a new home with potentially different ways will cause conflict. (My dislike for this woman started here). She also talks about how she wants to protect her marriage, and will go with her husband to Gauteng to see this boy.
When we meet Slumko,we just see a 14 year old boy who is curious about his father and what happened. It is an emotional scene when father and son meet, under the watchful eye of Nomzamo. Slumko had said earlier that he would like to live with his father next year. Anyway, when they get to talking, Moyiseli wastes no time in blaming the boy's mother for the seperaton, which really pissed me off. I mean, by his own admission, he left because his father fetched him and told him not to speak of his son, but now he had the odacity to blame this woman for the separtation between him and his son. Hai. He also makes sure Slumko knows that Nomzamo is his wife, and thus also his mother. Nomzamo tells Slumko to call her (no Moyiseli), when he needs something. (Is it just me, or is this woman nastily fishy?)
Anyway, with all the blame places on Slumko’s mother, and possible resentment planted in his head, Moyiseli promised to be a more involved father.
However, Andile informs us that afther the show, they (I suspect that "they" means Nomzamo), do not believe Slumko is Moyiseli’s son, because he doensnt look like his other kids. I mean guys really!!!
To me, this Nomzamo looked like those dominating wives who dictate what their husbands do, period. I just hope Slumko tells them to F off, no tests. I mean, Moyiseli knows this is his son, he was explaining this at the beginning, eish, he really pissed me off.
The reason this story touched me so is because I never knew my father. I’ve always wondered, but always thought if he wanted me, he’d find me. Just last week, my mother sat me down and told me about him. In short, he is dead, died in the early 90’s, but apparently, when he found out my mom was pregnant, he ducked. He came to see me when I was born, but seeing that I was a girl, was overjoyed as he believed girls didn’t need their fathers, and like that he was gone. I found myself crying, mourning a man I never knew, a man who didn’tn want me. All at the same time, I wished he wasn’t dead so I could tell hime off. But I was glad he saved me the pain of losing a father. I don’t know, this story just got me thinking about my issue again.
But ya, that was last night’s episode of KK. Hope you enjoyed the recap