Nelson Mandela’s Granddaughters To Star In Reality TV Show
The newest reality television show is in some ways like any other: mother and daughters, sibling rivalry, family gossip and talk of Big Grandpa, who is very strict but loves it when his great-grandchildren are around making a racket. But that’s where the twist comes in: Big Grandpa is Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid legend.
“Being Mandela,” a new series premiering Sunday on COZI TV, invites U.S. audiences into the lives of Zaziwe Dlamini-Manaway and Swati Dlamini, the fashionable, 30-something granddaughters of Mandela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. The 94-year-old former South African president, who recently was treated for a lung infection and had surgery to remove gallstones, does not appear in the series but his controversial ex-wife — “Big Mommy” to her grandchildren — does and seems to relish it.
If the Mandela clan seems like an odd subject for a reality show, the granddaughters make no apologies.
“We get asked this question a lot. Is this not going to tarnish the name and is this not going to be bad for the name?” Swati Dlamini said in an interview with The Associated Press in New York, where she and her sister were promoting the show. “But our grandparents have always said to us, this is our name too, and we can do what we think is best fitting with the name, as long as we treat it with respect and integrity.” “A little bit of mourning, little bit of celebrating – this is our family tonight and we’re going to do it the best that we can do it.”
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