“Admire is greedy and is compromising the story line,” said Jabulani Dlamini who stars as Fortune. “He wants to put himself at the top of the situation and force himself everywhere in the production. As it is
there are about six characters that have deserted the soap because of him, only new actors are manning the soap now. The production title has changed again. Surely how can one change the title of the soap at this stage? The production is down the drain now. Anosara ega (He will be left alone).” said Dlamini worriedly.
Dlamini exhibited his dissatisfaction about the changes in the story line of the soap and the whole re-branding exercise. He accused Maramba of altering the script to fit this new development alone
without the knowledge of the concerned actors who only got surprised to find themselves in dire need of trying to fit into the adulterated script.
“We asked him about the script that was there because no one was told about the changes on the script. The problem is that he cannot listen to others. He is arrogant. He thinks he can handle the whole
production by himself,” said Dlamini.Omega Mateyu who stars as the Commissioner reiterated Dlamini’s
sentiments saying there was a lot of chaos in the management of the soap by Maramba. He castigated Maramba for lack of maturity and unprofessional behaviour.
“There is a lot of disorganisation in the production. The man has mposed himself everywhere in the soap. He interferes with the script and is found in every episode in the soap. He wants to be the producer, treasurer, cast manager, editor and everything all at once.How can one perform 10 positions in the whole production?”He wants to use bully tactics and intimidation and we couldn’t withstand that. No one has been fired, we have not been expelled but people have been disgruntled and so we decided to quit.
“As an individual I don’t want to be associated with disorganised things and I don’t have time to waste. Otherwise I do not get money from those silly things. We expect a higher level of maturity from
producers and the ‘man’ should grow up and learn to do things in a professional way,” said Mateyu.
Contacted for a comment, Maramba denied changing the story line of the soap. Rather, he said they have introduced another family to the Tembera family, which was the focus of the soap. The new family will
antagonise with the Tembera family hence the title Estate Blues Armageddon 2, which means serious controversy. He said the change was but just an expansion of the same plot that has been running from the beginning.
About the actor exodus in the production, Maramba said he was not worried about actors leaving the production because there was nothing strange about that.”We don’t mind much about actors who are no longer part of us. We are only worried about those we work with for the progress of the production. The only effect perhaps might be on viewers adjusting to new faces, as they (viewers) tend to have strong bonds with their favourite actors. However, they should be patient and soon they will forget,” said Maramba.Concerning the accusations that his ex-colleagues level against him,Maramba could not come out openly about the matter. He only said: ” I am not at liberty to discuss anything about Omega because I have nothing to discuss about him.
With Fortune I cannot say anything about him because there is nothing to discuss about him. Tell them that Maramba is not at liberty to discuss about the issue of Fortune.”He scoffed accusations of greediness saying he was not worried about people peddling unfounded stories about him. “That is something said
by people who are jealous, people who cannot understand that someone can achieve things that others can’t. As a person I am not worried about what people say around” Maramba again took time to explain how some of the actors left the production as he turned the blame against them.
“Three of the key actors that left include Diana, PJ and Arinze. These three started their own soap project and didn’t tell us. Whenever we called them for shoots they didn’t come and so we decided to terminate
their contracts because we couldn’t tolerate that, we had to excuse them. The other one just quit the soap,” Maramba said.Whether these developments in the soap could be a harbinger of doom to
the whole production remains unknown. Veteran actor and producer Stephen Chigorimbo has been the first to quit the soap and rumours had it that he left the country for South Africa. Estate Blues is the
second of remaining soap production that has offered solace to the viewers following the fall down of Studio 263, Amakorokoza and Izolo Yizolo, who were also crippled by numerous constraints chief of which
was finance.