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Jonathan Mbiriyamveka TV Column
Today, yours truly, would like to take you back to what most of you are familiar with, I mean ZBC TV, For the past three weeks, I have been watching local productions and getting a lot of feedback.

As you might have noticed, Yvonne Katsande, ex-studio 263 actress now presents a short programme on health. Well, yours truly is not going to focus on that, we leave it for another day.

Today we focus on “Makosi Today”.

Yes, Makosi Musambasi, whose claim to fame was when she had a sex romp in the pool during her stint on the reality show Big Brother UK. Pictures from that reality show are all over the internet and interestingly, we are told she has changed.

There were also a string of tit-bits that came from that show as Makosi edged closer to winning the ultimate prize money by any means necessary.

It was at that time when she revealed that she had an affair with one of Harare’s top business moguls.

The good thing is we shouldn’t judge Makosi basing on her past, in fact we shouldn’t judge her at all. But we can judge her now since she is hosting a show on television.

This, we will do without fear or favour.

She calls her programme “Makosi Today”, notice how she has rebranded herself. The programme airs on ZBCTV every Monday starting at 7:30pm with a repeat elsewhere during the week.

What captured my attention was the fact that like any other talk show, hers features people from a diverse background.

The truth is, if the programme focused only on so-called celebrities then Makosi would definitely run out of guests.

So to ensure that does not happen anything goes on the show. They call it “team zvese zvese” in the ghetto.

While Queen Latifah,  Oprah Winfrey or even closer to home Mai Chisamba’s Shows are shot in studio, things are done differently on “Makosi Today”.

She literally visits her guests whereever they are, what a resourceful woman she is. We wonder if she knows how the quality of the production is compromised by doing that.
The episode which got me glued to the screen was when Makosi featured one of the pioneers of urban grooves – Rockford Josphats aka Roki.

It seemed as if Makosi hadn’t done much research about Roki as a musician and father of five. In other words there wasn’t anything new that she brought up during that the interview. She was also a bundle of nerves as she avoided hard hitting questions about Roki’s tumultuous love life and his fall from grace.

We expected Makosi to ask Roki pertinent questions that would make viewers understand him better. For instance, we wanted to know if Roki was prepared to have a steady relationship. Does he use drugs, if not , why was he arrested in 2008 in the Avenues area after the police found him in possession of mbanje?

In as much as Roki is talented and intelligent, the flip side to that is that he is also brilliantly dumb.

According to music critic Wonder Guchu, “There is something of a death wish in Roki – a swing that hangs around him at his most glamorous moments; some recklessness that pulls him down.

“At his brightest moment, Roki can be intelligent, brilliant and mature. Those moments are clearly evident in the fact that he scooped the 2003 Nama Best Urban Grooves Artiste award, the Zima Song of the Year award with Chidzoka and capped it all with Zima Best Video of the Year – again with Chidzoka.

“This is the brilliance which earned him a place in Big Brother Africa Stargame where he was a favourite for the money.

“But at his lowest moment, Roki can be downright idiotic, immature and a roving boomerang that can exact untold damages.

“This too is the idiocy which had him sacked from BBA House thereby blowing chances of taking home $300 000.

It does not take one long to feel it. I felt it the first time I met him.

It was not for an interview because I was never drawn to interviewing him although I value his talent and has always argued that if he gets a manager, he can be a big star”.

But Makosi failed to bring out the two-faced Roki because whenever she is interviewing a guest she gets star-struck.

And guess what happened, Makosi tried to spruce up everything bad about Roki,  if anything, the interview was a PR stunt which brought  nothing new.

Of late, we know Makosi as a high flyer and trendsetter but that doesn’t show on her programme. It is a pity, she has a great ideas but the challenge is she’s never done talks shows before. Yes, she has “acted” in front of the cameras before but that is not the same with talk shows.

Just as yours truly was researching about Makosi, I came across a post on her Facebook page which reads: “Drama doesn’t just walk into your life out of nowhere, you either create it, invite it or associate with people that bring it. When people bring nothing but drama to the table, I slip away quietly and let them eat by themselves.”

Frankly speaking I was not surprised because at the end of her interview with Roki she summed it up by saying she was inspired that Roki has “several children” (with different women) “because he says he doesn’t want to be isolated”. Really . . . ?

Until next week remember this is television and its real.

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