The House has just undergone another series of Nominations. Once again, these were submitted by the Head of House and Deputy Head of House only, which might suggest a pattern for the weeks to come, although there is nothing in the rules that state Biggie is not allowed to switch it up.
While the previous Nominations resulted in only five names up for possible Eviction, this time around there are seven Housemates in jeopardy, and the implications are fascinating.
As DHoH, Yoli was emotional when she was required to offer up four names for Nomination. Her bubbly personality doesn’t seem to jive well with having to be ruthless during the Nominations. When pressed, she ended up Nominating Themba, Acacia, Tulz and Nthabii.
Themba has emerged as an early strategic thinker, and he knew he wasn’t safe from possible Nomination. “I honestly don’t feel safe,” he told Big Brother during his Diary Session. “There is a target on my chest, and I know that for a fact.”
As a result, he desperately wanted to win the HoH Games, and his failure to do so did, indeed, lead to his Nomination, which means his fate rests in the hands of Big Brother Mzansi viewers.
Acacia made it onto the lists from both Sis Tamara and Yoli. She has been at the heart of a bitter dispute with Venus and BU regarding the latter’s romantic rejection of Acacia in favour of Venus.
This did not go down well. “With Venus,” she complained, “it’s a matter of dishonesty. Pretending to care, pretending to listen, only to backstab.” She had some vitriol left over for BU, too. “In this instance, it’s ‘birds of a feather flock together.’”
BU, for his part, is having none of it. “I’m not going to pretend like I’m fine with it. You can’t pick a human being and say, ‘this is my human being for life.’” Now, Acacia sees herself on the Nomination chopping block without Venus or BU, which must really irritate her.
Other than Acacia, Sis Tamara Nominated Zino, Nale and Mphowabadimo. The last two have been less than the very best of friends for the past few days, and Nale tried to take the matter in hand by speaking to Mpho directly. While it ended civilly enough, neither of them were particularly kind about the other during their Diary Sessions, so maybe the result of the chat is nothing more than a cessation of open hostility.
The viewers will have to decide which of them make it through to fight again. Maybe both of them do. Maybe, neither of them do.
What is perhaps the most interesting outcome of the process was Sis Tamara using the Save and Replace to void Yoli’s Nomination of Tulz and replace it with Vyno… his bestie’s squeeze.
While we can’t be sure of the exact intentions, Sis Tamara putting him on the chopping block speaks of the very deepest kind of strategy, and it will be fascinating to see how that turns out. It also means that both Vyno and Nthabii – the two newest Housemates – are up for Eviction at the earliest opportunity. Expect them to read into this.
It’s now up to the viewers to decide how these Nominations play out this coming Sunday. It’s going to be interesting.