The season’s premiere of Love Island SA has opened up a lot of wounds for Black South African’s who have taken to Twitter since its premiere to slam the show for its lack of diversity and technical glitches.
The show which is hosted by Leandie du Randt, has overbearing white contestants and is now called Love Island Orania has lost their sponsor, Lotto Star.
Lotto Star has withdrawn its sponsorship from the show and released a statement on Twitter yesterday which read:
“LottoStar has taken the decision to respectfully withdraw its sponsorship of Love Island SA. We wish the show and its contestants every success - Director, LottoStar. #LoveIslandSA”
Although the brand didn't give reasons for withdrawing, their move was welcomed by Black Twitter who applauded them for supporting their views:
The huge backlash and puling of sponsors has resulted in MNet issuing of an apology in a statement on social media to Mzansi and has assured viewers that it’s correcting their mistakes (lack of diversity and technical glitches).
The broadcaster stated yesterday on social media:
“You called us out on the lack of diversity and production quality in our first episode of Love Island SA. We’re sorry- we didn’t meet our usual standard on both counts. We are working tirelessly to fix things, and to deliver the Magic you deserve.”
Although tweeps welcomed Lotto Star’s withdrawal from the show, some tweeps slammed MNet’s apology by reminding them that there’s been lack of diversity in most of their shows throughout the years.
"Most black people don't watch these shows, we also, exclude other races in tv programming."
"Other races don’t want to learn Zulu /Sotho/Venda while we all need to know English. Make it makes sense."
"Exactly That Is Who They Are. We Will Not Rethink Their Apology Until They Decrease The Prices Because The Competition Commission Said They Have Monopolized And There Is Not Competition. Decrease The Bloody Package Prices We Will Rethink What You Are Saying To Us. Sokaaaaaaaaa."
A DSTV representative has also released a statement of apology to IOL Entertainment which read: “We pride ourselves in reflecting diversity and inclusion for all our shows, including ’Love Island’. The many channels and thousands of program hours we produce are a testament to this.
Viewers can be assured that this will become more apparent in future episodes of ’Love Island SA’. We hope viewers will keep watching to enjoy the new stars of the show who will be arriving over the next few days."
