Sonia Mbele: “I had the idea for ‘Pastor’s Wives’ eight years ago”

South Africa has a massive love affair with reality television. The genre brings hordes of viewers per episode and has proven to be the perfect escape for South Africans.  Now, ‘Pastor’s Wives’ and ‘Real Housewives’ producer Sonia Mbele opens up about the impact the genre has on the world as she chats to Carol Ofori.

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Over the past few weeks, Carol has been chatting to the cast of the ‘Real Housewives of Durban’, which has been met with rave reviews from critics and fans alike. Meanwhile, since ‘Pastor’s Wives’ premiered on DStv’s brand-new channel Honey last month, the series has become a hot topic. At the helm of both those shows is producer Sonia Mbele.

“I had this idea for ‘Pastor’s Wives’ about eight years ago but I parked it and obviously ‘Real Housewives’ happened and it took precedence in terms of my attention and what I wanted to do at the time,” Sonia explains. “Last year, I was asked to pitch an idea and I pitched ‘Pastor’s Wives’ and [the people I pitched to] said they would love to do something like that. I formatted the show and I came up with the tagline ‘Even women of God know how to exhale’ – and we took it from there.”

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‘Pastor’s Wives’ follows five women this season: Nandipha Mlombi, Phume Khethang, Anietie Ezeimo, Innocent Sadiki, and Adeyola Da Costa-Ayo.

Sonia adds that viewers can expect a whole lot of drama on the show’s first season. “People think that reality shows are scripted, but if you take five different types of personalities, whether they are women of God or otherwise, and put them in the same space, stuff is about to happen.”

For more unmissable Carol Ofori moments, listen here:

Image courtesy: Instagram