DURBAN - THE success of the reality TV show about one of South Africa’s most popular polygamist families has led the Mseleku family and a local tourism agency to launch a travel route to their rural South Coast home.
Businessman Musa Mseleku and his four wives - MaYeni, MaCele, MaKhumalo and MaNgwabe - are preparing for season three of the reality TV show after the second season wrapped up recently.
The family has entered into a partnership with Ugu South Coast Tourism to create a tourist route to their homestead after receiving an unprecedented number of visitors to their household over the past year.
Tourists will have a chance to engage with the family and go to the wives’ different houses. They will also be shown around rural Mzumbe.
The Uthando Nes’thembu route will be officially unveiled next month at the Tourism Indaba, it’s understood.
“People are fascinated by us and they love us,” said Mseleku this week. “We receive visitors who come to our house unannounced. They want to see if we are real people and are not acting.”
He said people came from as far away as Johannesburg and he often had people he didn’t know dropping in. “Others want to stay with us. Even when I am away from home, I receive calls from my children about visitors who are at my house to see me,” he said laughing.
He was converting one of his houses into a B&B so tourists could sleep over.
“We had to come up with a plan to manage the number of visitors and have them book an appointment,” he said.
“With Ugu South Coast Tourism on board, they will now need to make bookings first before coming to visit us.”
Mseleku, the father of 10 children, said some visitors come to get advice on how to introduce polygamy in their relationships.
“Men come with their wives and raise topics around polygamy and I tell them about our lifestyle and how it works.
“My wife, whoever is there, will also share her experience. They come here as a strategy to sort of influence their wives to also fall for polygamy.”
Ugu South Coast Tourism’s general manager for development Mazethu Zondi said they had trained local youth to be tour guides.
She said the South Coast had many other attractions, like the KwaNzimakwe route, KwaXolo caves and Nyandezulu cultural experience.
Zondi said the purpose of these routes was to give tourists an experience of the rural lifestyle and promote the area’s hidden gems.
“Some of the people who come here have never lived in a rural area.
“Our tour guides take them to identified homes and they get to stay and see how people there live. Visitors are introduced to the elders in the area, like Induna in the true style of rural cultural life.
“Other routes will visit the oldest caves and our tall mountain that provide beautiful sea views,” she said.