Domestic worker Siphokazi Mdlankomo has stolen the show on Masterchef SA, but her sisters are still all but forgotten, write David Smith.
She dazzled with a dauntingly elaborate chocolate dessert, then captivated with a tricky polenta lasagne with fried mushrooms and mussels. Now Siphokazi Mdlankomo is just two rounds away from winning the South African version of Masterchef and has viewers rooting for her, not only because of how she cooks.
Mdlankomo is a domestic worker, a section of society that rarely features in the limelight but, like miners and farm labourers, is still a crucial part of the post-apartheid economy. An estimated one in six working women in South Africa is a housekeeper or nanny, the majority of them black and working for a white employer, although the number of black employers is growing.
Mdlankomo, who grew up in a small rural village in the Eastern Cape with her mother, grandmother and three brothers, has been credited with raising the profile of this forgotten army of more than a million workers with her success on national television. She took on a former advertising executive, a train driving assistant and a life skills lecturer in the penultimate episode of Masterchef SA on Thursday.
For full story by David Smith visit Mail & Guardian
Cape Town’s Siphokazi and Durban’s Roxi emerged as the two MasterChef South Africa Season 3 finalists on Thursday night 4 December after a spectacular two-hour culinary extravaganza.
