The media painted a debauched showbiz life of singer and businesswoman Dineo Ranaka, the YFM presenter and also of Club 808 fame. So she blew the lid off all the scandals with Vuzu’s Dineo’s Diary: A Mogul in the Making. Now that she’s “set the record straight” with season one, Debashine Thangevelo got the lowdown on the next instalment. With Ranaka wearing her heart on her sleeve while also standing her ground, drama is on the cards again…
Fame changes people. But instead of being swallowed up by the allure of showbiz and the accompanying pitfalls, Dineo Ranaka (pictured) remains impervious.
Über stylish, eloquent and outspoken, Ranaka points out that it doesn’t mean she doesn’t have her fair share of setbacks. But this doesn’t keep her down, or from achieving her goals.
And she has changed from the person we saw in season one of Dineo’s Diary: A Mogul in the Making, on Vuzu last year.
She laughs: “I am shocked. I have now managed to pop two healthy babies.”
And her toddler son is smitten with his new baby sister.
I asked her if she achieved her objective of squashing all the tittle-tattles with the debut season of her reality show.
Ranaka says: “I think we managed to establish that. It was a matter of being in control of the message of who I am without media speculation about my energy levels and my craziness and where it comes from.
“I’m gonna wear my heart on my sleeve. I’m aggressive sometimes. I’m as natural as I can be – and don’t often wear much makeup. I’m just a woman who is trying to get her business off the ground. It was me saying to viewers, ‘let me educate you on who I am’. I think we have managed to set that record straight.”
Of the 13 episodes that aired, I asked if she ever had a moment when she wished she could re-do something.
She responds, without hesitating: “I have episodes that I watched and went, ‘OMG, this shit is real’. Especially the fight with my sisters. It was very intense. I thought, ‘jeez, we were rough’. But I don’t have anything I regret airing. I’m just as shocked that I took it that far.
“Sometimes we expect perfection from people in the spotlight. Behind closed doors, there isn’t perfection. I fight with my siblings and with my assistant (we are close friends). I’m a vulgar person.
“Sometimes I through the F-bombs around (my family). I’m that kind of girl. I am highly professional with strong work ethics. And I run my business my way.
“What you see is what you get, not what you read about.”
When we last spoke, Ranaka had just launched her Luv DR fashion label. I asked her how it was doing.
“It is coming along so nicely. I stopped calling myself a designer. I’m a fashion creative director. I work with a young team who help guide my creativity and spot trends. I’m loving the space we are in.”
With viewers having gotten to know the “real” Ranaka, what does she have planned for her second season?
“Ag man, I’m continuing to be as real as I can be. We have a 10-episode season. All that craziness that can see one be seriously judged is paying off. It is a slow process. I have a big dream, but am in no hurry to realise it. I want to plant the seeds properly and watch it bear rich, healthy fruit.
“You get to see new faces in my life. The Dineo the viewers will see is very different to a certain degree. She is very confident and comfortable in her own skin. She is aware of potential judgement. She is turning 30. She has two children. She is a mother and having fun. I’m trying to realise the rebirth of me at a level I have never been before.”
Although she wants to keep all the on-screen drama a surprise, she shares: “I have been through a lot (this past year). I also checked myself into hospital for temporal lobe epilepsy.
“I’m not interested in scripting my life, but I am interested in dictating to the camera when things happen in my life. This is who I am and who I will die being.”
Talk about arousing curiosity. This mogul-in-the-making certainly knows how to play her cards – can’t fault her there!
• Dineo’s Diary: A Mogul in the Making 2 starts tomorrow, 7pm, on Vuzu (DStv channel 123).