It has been 215 riveting episodes of Tshedza Pictures’ telenovela, and with just a month before its one year anniversary, I can say with absolute certainty, Gomora slaps.
Everyone knows that Gomora is about the haves versus the have-nots, it is about a woman who loses her Sandton lifestyle and resorts to stealing cars for a living. But more than that, there is a whole lot of cheek slapping that goes on. I have tried to keep score of the number of klaaps that have occurred on the show but I lost count after six:
Mazet was the first to receive a warm slap on Gomora, courtesy of Mam Sonto. Ntokozo has been smacked once by Buhle, twice by Melusi – although I’m not sure if that was a punch or a slap – and another time by London. Mazet received another cheek scorcher from Mam Sonto and Thathi has caught two hands from Pretty. I guess it is just a reminder of the well known fact that, well… Gomora slaps.
https://twitter.com/rewindmzansi/status/1275099939861905408?s=21https://twitter.com/rewindmzansi/status/1268959482077478914?s=21https://twitter.com/rewindmzansi/status/1272585680741437441?s=21https://twitter.com/rewindmzansi/status/1279108383807848449?s=21https://twitter.com/rewindmzansi/status/1355207943151616002?s=21https://twitter.com/rewindmzansi/status/1245736662698790912?s=21
Proof that Gomora slaps…
https://twitter.com/rewindmzansi/status/1268959482077478914?s=21
https://twitter.com/rewindmzansi/status/1272585680741437441?s=21
https://twitter.com/rewindmzansi/status/1245736662698790912?s=21
Gomora slaps some more!
Back to school for Mazet
After Mam Sonto made a donation of a printer to Gomora Secondary School, Melusi eventually decided that his former pupil would only be allowed to enrol into evening classes. Having been a troublesome learner (and also slept with his 17 year old son) this was the only compromise that Principal Dlamini was willing to make. Mazet was not able to begin lessons as soon as she wanted. All that sitting around made her restless. She tried to help Thathi and Pretty at the tavern but the two sisters gave her a reception as cold as a Lesotho winter. At least Lesotho comes with blankets.
They say an idle mind is a devil’s workshop and the devil soon visited Zanele. Beelzebub came with cornrows in his hair. He came in the form of Lindokuhle. London, as the streets call him, had a side job for the delivery of a BMW. He invited Mazet to join him. But she has left that life she said. The idleness was too much for Mazet to deal with. So she went on the carjacking job with London in her car. They spotted a suitable car. Mazet was to do the jacking while London drove her car.
When Mazet pulled out her gun on the frightened driver, she saw that the woman had a baby picture on her key tag. Mazet felt remorseful all of a sudden and abandoned the robbery.
Zodwa quits her job
Relations between childhood friends Gladys and Zodwa remained strained due to the Zoliswa-Bongani divorce or, rather, due to the fact that Gladiator keeps interfering.
Zodwa arrived for work late and Gladys, who is still mad at her for “wrecking Zoliswa’s home” gave her a harsh talking to. Zodwa then calmly reminded her that she had gone to meet the lawyer who would be representing Teddy in the Manzi rape trial. Zodwa then quit her job and walked out, leaving Gladys to marinate in her own guilt. The following morning at breakfast, Teddy barged into the Dlamini home yelling at Gladys. Melusi quickly dealt with Teddy’s rudeness with a simple “umuzi wami”.
When Teddy had calmed down he told Melusi that Gladys had sacked Zodwa. He also threatened to remove himself from the Dlamini (foster) family if Gladys continued to disrespect Zodwa. Melusi then pressured Gladys into going all the way to Zodwa’s house to apologise.
After the apology, Zodwa agreed to return to work.
Teddy fights for Zoliswa
At school, some learners teased Teddy and Zoliswa (Ms Madikizela) about being a new family. Teddy, Ntokozo and Langa cautioned the boys against being rude to their school teacher. But one of the boys clapped back with a comment about Ma’am Madikizela shouldn’t have aired her dirty laundry out in public.
The three musketeers Teddy, Ntokozo and Langa dragged the mouthy learner to the Principal’s office.
Later Zoliswa thanked the boys for coming to her defence.
Gomora slaps
Zodwa and Gladys’ friendship was no longer the same despite their shared joy in Teddy’s court case which went well. The Dlaminis invited Zodwa for supper. She brought Bongani along. It was clear that Gladys wasn’t happy to see Bongani with Zodwa. When Melusi and Bongani were alone, he gave Bongani the big brother/father in law talk.
“If you hurt Zodwa you will have me to deal with you”.
Bongani seemed visibly shook!
And then Bongani invited Zodwa and Teddy to meet his extended family to illustrate his seriousness in the relationship.
Gladys broke her vow of non-interference. Gladys feared that if Teddy was pulled into their relationship he might be emotionally hurt in the event of collapse of the affair. Gladys didn’t get to conclude her speech. Wapa! Zodwa smacked her across the cheek, proving two things; Zodwa isn’t afraid to be jobless and, as I’ve already told you…. Gomora slaps!
Sonto loses sight… but sees dead people
It wasn’t just Zanele who was going soft in Gomora’s crime world. Mam Sonto was in her bedroom when she suddenly screamed. Her daughters went running, Thathi had a pistol and Pretty a frying pan. You’ve got to laugh. Sonto is a gangster. If anything could scare her it wouldn’t be something you can fight with a non stick frying pan.
Sonto told her children that she had seen a rat. But what she had really seen was Bra Mike. Dead Bra Mike. A ghost.
Mike would return again, and again. And then Sonto clutched her chest and collapsed while doing her workout. Thathi took her to hospital but the doctors found nothing physically wrong with her. Sonto began to lose her eyesight. Mazet, the gangster with a conscience, advised Mam Sonto to get a sangoma to do a cleansing ritual on her. But she wasn’t named Sonto because her parents had run out of names. She is a prayer warrior who doesn’t believe in sangomas. At this point Sonto only had blurred vision.
But things got worse. She lost her sight completely. Only one thing left to do.
Sonto, Thathi, Pretty all sat in a sangoma’s room. Siyavuma! They did the cleansing. Thathi thought it was just mumbo jumbo. And Sonto saw. Her sight was restored.
But the cleansing only half worked. The ghost of Bra Mike reappeared. This time he told her in no uncertain terms that his soul would be restless until Sonto confessed to Thathi about killing her husband, Mbongeni.
Bad research
https://twitter.com/rewindmzansi/status/1363796084720566273?s=21
https://twitter.com/girl_kaybee/status/1361736956808491017?s=21
https://twitter.com/princekmentor/status/1361375045227077636?s=21
In creative writing, there is artistic license and then there is inaccurate storytelling. When you base your story on reality, you have to make it factually correct. The moment Gomora writers brought in ghosts and sangomas, they had to make the story factually accurate with regards to African spiritualism. Bra Mike has no right haunting Sonto because she didn’t kill him. Matter of fact, how the heck does Mike even know about Mbongeni being killed by Sonto’s gang?
If Bra Mike wants to hang out in someone’s room, he should go and chill in Zanele’s bedroom.
Till next week, my pen is capped
Gomora airs weekdays at 7:30pm on Mzansi Magic and is also available on DSTV Catch Up and Showmax
Image from Twitter and videos from YouTube
Connect with the author @RewindMzansi on Twitter
