April 13, 2021

7de Laan’s Vince and Bonita are together again on The Estate on SABC

So I watched the first episode of The Estate on YouTube earlier today and there’s not been any sign of 7de Laan’s Vince and Bonita yet, but it’s been mentioned in various spaces online that Vince and Bonita will be reunited and together again as husband and wife on SABC 3’s new soapie/telenovela. Obviously, they won’t be the Meintjies, but rather the van Wyks this time. I think I saw that another actor was cast as Mrs van Wyk, but she probably didn’t work out.

I’m always happy when actors move on or take long breaks from our soapies, especially 7 de Laan, which is one of the longest-running local TV programmes still airing in South Africa. Jacques Blignaut had been playing the role of Vince for 15 years! That’s more than long enough. Hildegardt Silkiewicz has been playing Bonita for 11 years already. And anyway, the writers of 7de Laan wrote Vince into a corner when they chose to pair him with Aggie. I mean, what else but a life of boredom awaited them and us. In real life that’s what most of us wish for – contentment and not much drama – but in soapies, it’s the thrill of the chase and not so much everyday life that viewers want (even though most of us don’t know it).

To top it tall, the 7de Laan writers had a small window of opportunity to put Vince and Bonita back together, even for a while, but chose not to. I guess not to ruin Bonita’s character (after her and Xander’s affair) and not to make Vince into a bad guy. Which is the problem I have with 7de Laan these days. They’re very risk-averse.

From the looks of it, The Estate is going to be a breath of fresh air. Maybe. It reminded me of a backstory on Pearl Thusi’s Queen Sono where they had the exile-class-turned-politicians versus those who remained and fought in the country. I liked seeing my favourite ex-Isidingo Pastor Gabriel, Aubrey Poo.

But back to 7de Laan and Vince and Bonita. Those two were good together because they were such different characters. It will be interesting to see their dynamic on a new show. There’s no news yet of Bonita leaving the Laan. I do hope if she leaves that an interesting story is written for her involving Justin, maybe. After all she’s been through, Bonita deserves a happy ending.