She was the first person to walk through the Big Brother Titans’ doors in January. This is usually a sign of not-so-good luck, as show host Ebuka Obi-Uchendu notes at the winners press luncheon.
But this time around, luck had no chance as she became one of the last two of 24 contestants still standing after 10 weeks.
She witnessed the lights in the Big Brother house go off for the very last time. Moments later, she was announced as the first winner of Big Brother Titans alongside Nigeria’s runner-up, Kanaga Junior, real name Kalo Emmanuel Eme.
Makhosazane Twala instantly dropped to her knees at the mention of her name on Sunday evening while her parents stood in absolute joy and disbelief at the Johannesburg watch party, surrounded by her legion of fans who affectionately refer to her as ‘King Khosi’.
The following day when she walked into the press luncheon in Sandton, she was welcomed with flashlights and a standing ovation.
“It still feels so unreal, I think it’s going to take some time for me to get to a place where I’m like ‘I did that’,” says the 26-year-old.
When she entered the competition, she was merely shooting her shot with her friend Sibusiso Hlongwane who was behind the lens of her audition video.
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“I think everyone wants to be on Big Brother, so it started like that and then you just audition, just to shoot your shot but when it actually came into fruition, I was like ‘oh, this might actually be a thing’,” she tells attendees of the luncheon.
That’s when she started thinking about the type of person she wanted to be in the house. Coming from a beauty pageant background, she felt the need to take up a certain character but that was short-lived.
Being in the house practically changed her game plan and she decided to just be herself – a strategy that seemed to have worked in her favour.
The bubbly Khosi admits that “the journey was so tricky” and that whatever came with the rollercoaster ride, changed her.
“I came as a certain person, and I left a different person. I thought I knew who Khosi was but turns out, I didn’t. When I was in the house, I got to see my weaknesses and my strengths, and I think I conquered all the way.
“I learned how to make silent moves and still stay loud on the outside, that’s why they never saw me coming,” she says confidently as she also adds that she learned “how to be a better person and know what I stand for”.
Bringing out the better person into the outside world where she's a model and a journalist, she reveals her plans to add philanthropy to the list of things she has grown to be over the years.
“It’s time for me to focus on my charity and I think there’s no perfect time than now because I am here because of people, people voted for me to be here, and I’ve always wanted to give back. My primary focus, getting this money, is to see how I can make a difference.”
Khosi was nominated for evictions every Sunday. While this made her shake in her boots in the Big Brother house, it turned the mood sour at her home in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal where her parents watched with worry.
Talking to Drum, her parents say they wished to yank her out of the house when the going got tough for her, especially when she would break down in tears out of fear that she wouldn’t make it through.
From being tail of the house to being head of the house, the “Qhawekazi” as her mother, Phumzile described her, soldiered on.
“I really thought I was going to get along and have it going with everyone but that wasn’t the case. I thought we were all going to be in the house, excited to [just] be in the house, I think a part of me forgot that it was a competition,” says Khosi.
Although it took time for her to bring her A-game, when she did, she was widely admired for putting up a strong face across a number of African countries watching.
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During a sit down with her as she looks over the Sandton skyline, she tells Drum that “Everyone wanted me to leave but as people were voting for me to stay in the house, I gained some confidence. More than anything, I wanted to prove to the housemates that my fate is not in their hands.”
Of all the things she missed about the outside world, bubblegum was the first. Second, it was having her parents and the friends she trusts to advise her along the way.
When she was leaving for the Big Brother house though, her mother had imparted a few eye-openers with her. In an interview with Drum, Phumzile says she warned Khosi against “izinto ezinga lunganga [ungodly things]”. And as it were, Khosi says that her biggest regret was doing “something I had never done before, with a girl” in a truth or dare game that she played with the other housemates.
Now walking away with the cash prize of $100 000 (R1.7 million), Khosi says her biggest lesson from this journey is that “sometimes people will see something in you that you don’t see in yourself. When they tell you, as hard and unrealistic as that might be, try to run with it!”
