At first glance, Sunday’s bachelor on Date My Family, Tawanda Taruvinga, a 24 year old Durban entrepreneur, seemed to be a charming, intelligent, pleasant young man. But as the saying goes, the more you speak, the more you reveal your true character; on one of the most shocking episodes of Date My Family, Tawanda soon revealed himself and Twitter went into a frenzy.
What is Date My Family?
For the sake of the uninitiated, Date My Family is a weekly reality show on Mzansi Magic, DSTV, produced by Connect TV. Rather than simply pairing singles together, every week Date My Family sends one bachelor/bachelorette on three dates with the families of potential suitors. The bachelor or bachelorette does not get to see the potential partner. Instead he or she must gather as much information as possible from the family members over dinner. After meeting three different families, the bachelor or bachelorette chooses one of the three potentials to go out on a one-on-one date. If the date goes well, the two are free to escalate their meeting into a second date, away from the prying eye of the camera.
https://twitter.com/ConnectTV_SA/status/1467174024400752643?s=20
Meet Tawanda Taruvinga, rudest man in Mzansi
Tawanda is a Durban based young entrepreneur of bi cultural background, although his father is Zimbabwean, he is South African (Zulu) by virtue of his mother.
During dinner with the first family – home of bachelorette Mandisa Mchunu – Tawanda touched the host’s friend, Nokwanda, on the hand. The family members kept exchanging puzzled glances as Tawanda went on asking questions of a sexual nature. When Nokwanda politely enquired, “Can I ask this question?” Date My Family’s rudest bachelor shot back, “No you can’t!”
He ended the meeting brusquely and left Bubele, the male friend, hanging in the air, in expectation of a goodbye handshake that never came!
Next on his itinerary was Pietermaritzburg, 73 kilometres away, the home of trainee chef, Tayla who is of mixed race. But despite this rather obvious fact, upon arrival, Tawanda referred to the family as “white people.”
Mercifully, they laughed it off.
But there was further shock for hosts Chrissy, Kaitlin and their male friend , Devon, Tawanda revealed that he was looking for someone who is “sexually ambitious.”
When Tayla’s friends mentioned that she had a child he replied “that’s quite a bit of baggage” before promptly cutting his visit.
At the next date in Durban – the home of natural haired beauty, Perseverence Vuyiswa Mthembu (20) – Tawanda continued where he had left off with Tayla.
After a quick glance at the meal, Tawanda began, “Who cooked?”
The family, attempting to hype their bachelorette, said it was Vuyiswa.
“Well, she did a terrible job, the wors is medium rare!”
Shock!
“How many South African languages do you speak?” asked one family member.
“It’s not about me, it’s about your friend,” said Tawanda to the stunned room. When he was not attacking the undercooked, “pink boerewors” Tawanda carried on a side conversation with the bachelorette’s friend, Nontokozo Dazela, whom he referred to as Miss Velvet, in reference to her form fitting burgundy dress. In his diary session Tawanda admitted to being “more keen on her than the other one” (the bachelorette).
How Date My Family is made
According to Nontokozo – Miss Velvet to the cheeky, forgetful bachelor – each family dinner is shot in a single day. Apart from arranging the meal, a lot of preparatory work takes place before the bachelor arrives.
“There’s a lot of planning and background work that goes into the show, the film crew actually arrived in the morning to set up the cameras, we spent the whole day preparing for everything, getting our makeup done and changing outfits since everything is shot in one day.”
The beautiful young Nontokozo who wore her hair in purple braids which matched her velvet dress, remained loyal to her friend, despite the attentions of Tawanda. When the bachelor asked if her friend Vuyi was as beautiful as she is, Nontokozo replied, “even hotter!”
Asked why she seemed to be the bachelor’s focus that night, Nontokozo attributed this to pure lust.
“Now that I actually think about it, he was just being a pervert, nothing much, what can I say I’m a gorgeous girl.”
Nontokozo Dazela, businesswoman
Nontokozo is not just a pretty face and curvy hips. Even though she is barely out of her teens, she manages to balance anthropology and French university degree studies and a business that she founded two years ago.
“Cocoa Butter Creations is an independent slow fashion luxury brand that specializes in unique crochet items of preference and delivers excellent customer service, it is a sole proprietorship business entity for now and I am responsible for all the operations in the business, we offer a great variety of crochet clothing which includes dresses, bralettes, accessories, bags, baby clothes, bikinis, male vests and shorts and so much more. The end goal is to take this business onto the global market.”
A creative at the core, Nontokozo’s creations are imbued with her artistic personality.
“I’m not one for boring, normal hair so everyone notices my hair first hand, I would say 100% of my personality goes into my handwork because I believe in bright colours”.
In the end, Tawanda chose Mandisa. He should have listened when her friend Nokwanda said she was “the sort of person to tell it to you bluntly is she does not like something.” The date went downhill when he dismissed her attempt to teach him the value of consent. Mandisa was not impressed that he touched her friend without her consent. With Mandisa failing to get through to Tawanda on this point, the date ended prematurely.
The question on most readers’ minds is, if Tawanda, the rudest bachelor to ever feature on Date My Family, were to ask out Nontokozo, Miss Velvet, on a date, would she say yes? Nontokozo’s response was unequivocal.
“Absolutely not, I would never!”
It was not just Nontokozo who disliked Tawanda’s manner. Twitter users were scathing in their summation of the rudest bachelor ever.
Pause and hit like for Mandisa net for the way she handled Tawanda #DateMyFamily pic.twitter.com/zYuTZPd52q
— Monye Collen (@Monye__) December 5, 2021
https://twitter.com/NalaThokozane/status/1467731632786395141?s=20
https://twitter.com/Sue_Mvelase/status/1467543326463336453?s=20
https://twitter.com/RewindMzansi/status/1467536994565771269?s=20
Meanwhile, rejected single, Vuyiswa has received lots of offers from suitors who reached out to her after her appearance on the show.
Connect with the writer on Twitter @RewindMzansi
Date My Family airs on Sundays at 6pm, with a repeat show on Tuesday, Mzansi Magic