Polikem: Love or business partnership?

By Silence Charumbira

Many may have wondered what the reality television game show Big Brother is all about since its inception in 2009.To that end, many views have been expressed and some quite interesting.

What has become the norm is that when the housemates stay in the house for at least a month, romantic relationship start to develop. In 2009, Nigeria’s Kevin Chuwang, who eventually won the Big Brother Revolution, married Elizabeth Gupta from Tanzania who was also a housemate.

The couple welcomed their first born daughter, Savannah, in 2011. Meryl Shikwambane from Namibia and Mwisho Mwampamba from Tanzania fell head over heels in Big Brother All Stars in 2010 to the extent of getting engaged on the show. The two were also blessed with a baby girl last year.

From Big Brother Africa Amplified, South African Quinn Sieber’s romance outside the house with Mozambican Jennifer Mussanhane, from the BBA 4 in 2010, also boasts a baby.

While in the past years Zimbabwean housemates were not on the list of these post-BBA relationships, the trend has changed and our housemates seem to be cherishing the love that blossomed in the house.

Former representative Roki at one time said he would marry Zambia’s Mampi. The couple met after their exit from the house and did a song together. They also had a number of shows together but their perceived romantic affair did not last.

However, this year’s representatives, Pokello Nare and Hakeem Mandaza, are enjoying the limelight for their newly found love interests, Elikem amd Cleo respectively. Pokello is currently in Ghana with Elikem. The two fell in love in the BBA house and they seem determined to get married.

Although Hakeem said he was not in a hurry to marry, he recently visited his girlfriend Cleo who represented Zambia this year. Could this be real love, like what we have seen in previous editions, or could these simply be publicity stunts?

Pokello has made it a point to seize every chance to flaunt her boyfriend and pose for the cameras. She looks poised to making a killing from the free publicity.

She told a Ghanaian radio station she and Elikem would be opening clothes shops in the country as well as other African countries where they will be selling their Polikem clothing line and other merchandise.

Pokello was not known in Zimbabwe before the leaking of her sex-tape with singer Stunner in 2012.

Although she has refuted claims that the intimate video was a publicity ploy, it appears when she finally got the accidental publicity from the Big Brother house, she dumped him and upgraded herself to the Ghanaian garment maker.

Whether the two eventually marry, still remains to be seen.

Hakeem might be playing his cards close to his chest but anything is possible, considering the intimate moments he had with Cleo in Zambia. Could Zimbabwean housemates be joining the BBA love train? Zimbabwe Standard