It’s easy to dismiss the bullying on reality shows as desperate acts by attention-seeking wannabe celebrities who should be ignored by society. Yet normalising this aggression leads to more bullying and violence.
Gagasi FM presenter Minnie Ntuli is embroiled in an ugly bullying saga involving Londie London, a reality television personality.
Ntuli jabbed London’s forehead in a heated moment in one of the popular Real Housewives of Durban season 5 shows. This footage was not released as it happened but when the season came to a close, which too is self-serving for the makers of the show.
It is common knowledge that many young people look up to their television idols and tend to mimic their conduct.
Art, they say, imitates life which, in turn, imitates art. It’s an unending cycle.
When Ntuli, a Durban-based radio star, enters the national stage and behaves like a bully, the damage is not merely to her brand. When social justice activists decided to launch a petition for Ntuli’s removal on radio and television, they correctly characterised her conduct “as bullying, unkind and unprofessional”.
It’s one thing to seek attention, but another to be vile and violent. Her violent conduct is deplorable and must never be countenanced.
The petition has attracted more than 55,000 signatures from those galled by Ntuli’s conduct. Ntuli ought to have known that we are saddled with many challenges flowing from bullying. In schools, bullying has led to suicides.
Others have had to change schools, if not stay away from schools, because the bullies have turned what previously were conducive learning environments into poisonous cesspits.
Researchers identify the root causes of bullying as ignorance, prejudice and an insatiable need for power or recognition
A Unesco report says 32% of schoolchildren are bullied at schools worldwide with calamitous consequences. Some reports show that victims of bullying become bullies later. Other researchers identify the root causes of bullying as ignorance, prejudice and an insatiable need for power or recognition.
In an interview with TshisaLIVE before the footage emerged last month, Ntuli said: “People think I’m just this hot-headed, defensive girl with an attitude, but there’s more to me. I’m soft-hearted, loyal, thoughtful. I just happen to be fiery when pushed. I feel deeply and sometimes that comes out messily, but I’m not fake. What you see is what you get.”
On her encounter with London, Ntuli said the argument was heated and afterwards she had occasion to reflect and seek an opportunity to apologise.
“Emotions were high, egos were bruised, and communication broke down. I’ve since reflected and reached out privately to apologise. What viewers saw wasn’t the full picture, but my actions in those moments are on me.”
Unfortunately this is not enough. The damage is public. The unbecoming conduct is embedded in the formative minds of schoolchildren and general television viewers. Ntuli ought to apologise publicly and unreservedly — not only to London but the public subjected to her degenerate conduct.
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