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Chidzonga for Wenera cameo role

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FORMER Big Brother Africa participant, Munya Chidzonga, has landed a cameo role — together with Kerina Carol Harrington and upcoming Tswana actress Bontle — in Season 5 of the top-rated local soap opera, Wenera, scheduled to start showing on March 13.

FORMER Big Brother Africa participant, Munya Chidzonga, has landed a cameo role — together with Kerina Carol Harrington and upcoming Tswana actress Bontle — in Season 5 of the top-rated local soap opera, Wenera, scheduled to start showing on March 13.

BY PHILLIP CHIDAVAENZI

Part of Wenera cast
Part of Wenera cast

Harrington played the role Vimbai’s mother, Chenai, in another popular local soap, Studio 263.

Producer, Eddie Ndlovu told NewsDay yesterday that apart from the three, the cast would largely remain unchanged for purposes of consistency.

“We shall be maintaining the usual cast of Wenera that we have been having all along. The script is still in development, hence I cannot say much on new faces, but the audience has to expect surprise cameos,” he said, adding that the final episodes of Season 4 would be shown next week.

He said Season 5 would also usher in a re-branding process, so their audience can look forward to something new.

“As for Season 5, we are re-branding and the package will include a complete new wardrobe for actors. Some sets are being re-painted and re-designed right now, a new opening billboard and of course new plots that we fit into the old plots that are pushing the story (forward),” Ndlovu said.

He added that they did not do auditions for the new Season 5, as the old cast is still pushing the current plots.

“But for the new upcoming plots, we have head-hunted a few new calls. Anything can happen at a later stage since the other half of the script is in development,” he said.

Ndlovu said they would have “bridge episodes” showing behind-the-scenes developments, as well as helping the audience to catch up with what happened in Season 4.

The producer said with over 20 000 followers on Facebook — as the soap has become a household name, they have been able to lure back many viewers to ZTV.

“Since we produce the drama for the people, we are happy they have accepted the programme and they are craving for more, which is a good sign of growth,” he said.

With every season of Wenera showing 26 episodes over 13, Ndlovu said the audience was asking for five days a week, as they felt two episode were too little “for their vast thirst”.

He said they were working with ZTV to put together resources to be able to run the programme throughout the week.

“There is a lot of money involved, so we just encourage the audience to pay their licences in time and always, so that we are able to have funds enough to produce the show during weekdays,” he said.