The Egoli Years

Egoli - Plek in my Hart

(Place in my Heart)

 

I was a devoted Egoli fan from the very first episode which aired on M-Net on 6 April 1992 until the final episode on 31 March 2010. At 6 p.m. every evening, all activity in our household would come to a standstill (supper had to be ready by 5:59 p.m.) as we took our places on the couch, ready for another episode of drama and intrigue - and heaven help the person who called during that half hour. The series, produced by the legendary Franz Marx, was South Africa's first daily soap opera and featured some of the country's finest actors and actresses playing characters that were at once identifiable, relatable and most of all, wonderfully South African. It was a tale of rich and poor, powerful and powerless, young and old, kind and cunning - all trying to survive in the City of Gold.
　
At the heart of the show was the Vorster family, a wealthy family led by Walt and his stern spinster sister Monika. They controlled Walco International, a place where an omnipotent "direksie" besluite gemaak het and where there was always a "krisis", a place where dreams were made and shattered, where a former PT teacher or a secretary or a long-haired bodyguard or a waitress from Okahandja could occupy senior management positions. The Vorsters were a family that not only had skeletons in their closets, they were buried under the swimming pool, causing thousands of viewers to wonder "wie is Gert Du Toit?". They threw fabulous parties in their mansion, with its swanky patio, and hosted many international stars including Perry Stevens, Samantha Fox, Jerry Springer, Jackie Collins, and even Joan Collins who played Catherine Sinclair.

However, the Vorster empire gradually disintegrated and soon the Edwards family were moving into the Vorster mansion and taking over Walco, bringing with them their own baggage and plenty of drama. Chris Edwards was the head of the new family and Louwna, formerly a Vorster, managed to get him to put a ring on it, thus enabling her to maintain her luxurious lifestyle. Chris had two spoilt children, Jane and Steven, who always found new ways to screw up their lives. An aside: I once spotted Chris Edwards exiting the bathrooms at OR Tambo and almost walked into a wall from excitement.

 Source:  channel24.com

In contrast to the opulence of the aforementioned families, the show also had families that were much lower down on the socioeconomic hierarchy. Ester Willemse, played by the incomparable Shaleen Surtie Richards, was a kind-hearted but vat-nie-kak-nie old lady with asthma, a habit of rubbing her chest while uttering her famous catchphrase "maar my!" and an obsession with the British Royal family (which is where her children, Margaret and Andrew, got their names). She was the owner of a humble block of flats, Marlborough Mansions, in a less-than-prestigious area of Johannesburg. She formed an unlikely friendship with Elsa, a tough, conservative Afrikaans tannie, and together they got themselves into some hilarious situations. One that stands out is when they accidentally ate dagga (marijuana) cookies. Another is when they walked in on bad boy Joe, buck-naked - I think the first and only time South African soapie fans were rewarded with an ass shot.
　
Then there was the Naude family in Brixton, held together by "Tannie" Nora, who made her own outfits and wore make up probably four times in the entire 18 years of the show's existence. Her sisters, Louwna and Cecile, managed to escape the poverty into which they were born but poor Nora was destined for a lifetime of struggles and left to take care of their brother, Bertie, an annoying simpleton who worked for the Post Office and learned everything about life from his bestie, Pietie - "net so sê hy!". Nora converted her outside buildings to rooms (the size of shoe boxes) which she rented to lodgers, who brought their own drama and intrigue to the Naude household.
　
This show had everything: twin sisters, one of whom died after being pushed down the stairs, a cult led by the menacing Menasse, murders and serial killers, bitch fights, drugs, schizophrenics, illegal diamonds, a gay couple who never touched each other, plane crashes in Angola, hostage dramas, domestic abuse, romances between pensioners, heart attacks, suicide attempts and goths who turned out to be illegitimate children.
　
But Egoli wasn't just a popular show; it was an empire. There were road shows which brought the characters to fans around the country, even to little old East London - and yes, I was in the front row. There were CD soundtracks featuring various artists who had appeared on the show, including Baby Botha (played by the fabulous Sarah Theron), who owned and performed at a strip club called The Rainbow or something along those lines. In the show's first few years there was a collector's album with cards of the show's main characters. An embarrassing confession, I even wrote to some of the actors asking if they had any of the cards I was missing (my cheeks are burning at the memory). Shaleen Surtie Richards was gracious enough to write back and tell me that it was a CNA promotion that had nothing to do with the actors. There was a perfume, called "Essence of Gold". There was a cookbook which became a best-seller and included recipes from Nenna, Elsa, Donna and Mrs Naidoo - you don't get more Rainbow Nation than that.
　
For all of these reasons and more, I will always treasure the Egoli years.