Maneta snubbed

MANETA Mazanhi has come back to Bulawayo, but not to a warm welcome as people said her presence had no significance as she was only notorious for riotous behaviour that embarrassed the nation on the African continent.

Maneta was disqualified alongside compatriot Rockford "Roki" Josphats on day 44, from the Big Brother Stargame for violence. The reality show ends on Sunday 5 August.

The Ballers League on Saturday evening held a welcome home party for Maneta at Jock and Saddle with revellers thronging the joint to hang out and have fun.

In separate interviews with Chronicle Entertainment revellers said they had heard of Maneta's party but were not interested in meeting her.

"Whether Maneta is here or not is neither here nor there we are here to have fun like most weekends. She can sit in the VIP section and we shall be here drinking and partying the night away," said Anthony Moyo from Hillside.

He said both Roki and Maneta should be ashamed of their actions as they painted a bad picture of Zimbabwe.

"How can a grown man like Roki be rumour mill and tittle-tattle on a young woman, seriously? Roki should have been ashamed of himself. His tactics to win the game were disgusting and I wonder why everyone is hero worshipping a gossiper," said Moyo.

Another reveller Michelle Pritchard said Maneta was an embarrassment to the Bulawayo community and her presence at the party was a non event.

"I am not moved a bit with her presence, honestly she has not achieved anything and she is only known for riotous behaviour and being a foul mouth like her compatriot Roki. I am just here to celebrate my cousin's birthday," she said.

Her friend who only identified himself as Fitzgerald said he only heard that there was a party for Maneta and asked who she was.

He said after his friends informed him who Maneta was he had an idea who she was and what she was known for.

Maneta arrived at the party clad in a black dress and pink high heeled shoes at about 1am and went straight to the VIP section.

The VIP section that had white couches and a matching carpet had a glass table that had champagne, whisky, ciders and wines.

She and her entourage were accompanied there by Babongile Sikhonjwa, the head of Ballers League.

However, journalists had a torrid time in doing their job as overzealous bouncers barred them from entering the VIP lounge.

The scribes were made to wait for nearly an hour as bouncers jostled among themselves to get a picture with Maneta.

It was only after the intervention by organisers that they were allowed to carry on with the job in the early hours of the day.

In an interview during the party Maneta said she arrived in Bulawayo on Friday from Harare and she was also in the city to register for her degree programme.

She said she was misunderstood about lambasting Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) when she said it was a corrupt organisation.

"All organisations have corrupt people and those few are the bad apples in these organisations. My comments were taken out of context, I never attacked Zimra. I only used it as a reference," said Maneta.

She said she was going back to Harare to sort out things for projects she was not at liberty to divulge to the media.

Maneta said Roki was the troublemaker and when he poured water on her on the fateful day of the disqualification he had got on her last nerve.

"He (Roki) had been doing it (pouring water) since morning and as you know everyone has a breaking point and that day I had had enough of Roki," said Maneta.

She said when she left the house she hurled obscenities at other housemates because she was highly emotional.

"It was an expression of emotion and nothing else. At the end of the day we are both to blame for our disqualification," said Maneta.

She said people should not judge by what they saw in the show as she was playing a game, but they had a right to their opinion.

"People should not be quick to judge me, I was just playing the game. The comments on social networks were just people expressing their opinions that they are entitled to," said Maneta.

She thanked all who came to welcome her back home.

Sikhonjwa said it was good to know that there were now two celebrities in the city.

He said he threw the party because everyone was negative about Maneta, a person from Bulawayo and that this was not the first time he threw a party for someone famous in the city.

"I am about uplifting people from the city and we saw an opportunity to have something that could shed positive light on Maneta. I am 100 percent for Bulawayo and as you can see Ballers League can make things happen," said Sikhonjwa.

He said they had changed Maneta's name to Money-eta.