HARARE - Big Brother Africa 2014 titled “Hotshots”, which was supposed to begin on Sunday, has been postponed indefinitely after the house which was supposed to house contestants for the 91-day reality show, went up in flames on Tuesday .
M-Net and Endemol SA, the organisers of the reality show, confirmed the razing of the Big Brother house at the Sesani Studios in Johannesburg and the resultant postponement yesterday.
“Due to a devastating fire at the Big Brother house on September 2, 2014, Big Brother Hotshots will not launch this Sunday (September 7) as scheduled,” read part of the statement.
“The cause of the fire at this stage is unknown and investigations will commence as soon as it is safe to do so.”
The two organisers added that they had begun looking for an alternative Big Brother house but hinted that this could take time.
“As this production has highly technical infrastructure, camera and edit requirements an alternative is not immediately available. Every effort will be made to find a solution as quickly as possible to ensure that Africa’s biggest reality show will continue.”
According to the statement no one was injured when fire engulfed the house which has over 55 cameras, as well as over 100 microphones.
Last year’s contestants came from South Africa, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Nigeria,Angola, Zambia, Uganda ,Namibia,Ghana,Malawi,Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Botswana and Malawi.
But Sierra Leone and Rwanda have been excluded in this year’s edition of Big Brother Africa.
This has been attributed to schedules and logistical constraints which did not allow sufficient time to follow the necessary procedures in order to process the required travel documentation which has recently become a more complex procedure.
Zimbabwe’s representatives are likely to be chosen from a list that includes DJ Butterphly Phunk, Dr Clarence, Jefferson Muserera, Taurai Mandebvu, Hillary Indi, Cynthia Mare, Tawanda Mugodhi (Goridhe) and Thomas ‘CST’ Chizhanje.