On Sunday night Max Chongu was the fourth housemate to leave Big Brother after he was monumentally thwacked out of the house by every country except Zambia who's phonelines went down so they couldn't vote. (I reckon this is what happened.)
On Monday morning I caught up with him for us to rub in just how much everyone wanted to get rid of him and of course find out exactly why he thought he was so above the rules that applied to everyone else.
Here's what he had to say:
*BB camera zooms in, with the sound of Lerato hysterically crying in the background*
Tashi: Getting evicted was obviously a massive shock considering you saw yourself as being such an untouchable and so above being nominated.
Max: Ja it’s not that I considered myself to be an untouchable - everyone there is bound to be nominated, it’s just that I didn’t expect it to come so soon. When that happened I had a lot of questions in my head.
Tashi: Why did you expect it wouldn’t be so soon when it was happening to everybody else?
Max: It was happening to everybody else, including me but when that happened I looked at the number of people who were close to me and they were coming to me to say: “I did not do it, I did not do it.”
We’re talking about seven people against two so that’s how come I was in shock, I was like “What’s happening if people are telling me: ‘I did not do this,’” so I had a lot of questions, I started suspecting people were trying to make me happy and not telling the truth.
Tashi: Who did you think was going to leave?
Max: On Monday when I got nominated and on the Tuesday I was pretty sure I was not going to leave but the way I took up my nomination, I think it affected my performance and everything I was doing in the house so I think I lost it there and people concluded I thought I was untouchable. On Saturday night I knew I was leaving.
You won't believe it but when we did the audition, before I came into the house - I had a dream, most of my dreams happen in the opposite way. I had a dream that we were three and I made it made it and the two were sent back.
On Saturday I had a dream, I remember telling Lerato and I told Richard the following day: “You know what I had a dream that you and Tatiana and I were up for eviction and I remained here.” Meaning that I knew I was out because it’s usually the opposite.
Tashi: You told KB that you felt the housemates voted for you because you were a threat to them but clearly it’s the complete opposite - you got whacked by every country except one.
Max: When you look at when I was nominated there were so many segments that were brought to me by my colleagues and most of these bordered on how me being a threat in how I was performing in the tasks. I’m inside the house and there are people outside so to me I thought it was that and the people outside thought: “He thinks he’s untouchable.” It’s not that I didn’t expect it to happen, I knew it would happen but it isn’t the way people interpreted it.
Tashi: What was the sex like between you and Lerato?
Max: What was the what?
Tashi: What was the sex like between you and Lerato?
Max: I didn’t have sex.
Tashi: You’re trying to convince us it didn’t happen?
Max: I never had sex, we were kissing and we were touching but I never had sex.
Tashi: So you tricked us into thinking you did in the hope that we’d keep you in to see more?
Max: I didn’t trick anyone, it’s just that probably you didn’t see what you wanted to see. What you thought you saw, that’s not what was happening. I didn’t trick anyone, I was just doing what I was going to do in that environment under the influence of alcohol.
Tashi: How do you possibly explain voting for Meryl because of her behaviour of being naked and wild etc when you cheated on your girlfriend in front of the whole world?
(
5 sec silence)
Max: Sorry, come again.
Tashi: How do you possibly explain voting for Meryl because of her behaviour of being naked and wild etc when you cheated on your girlfriend in front of the whole world?
(
5 second silence)
Max: Well um with Meryl it was based on moral grounds. On my side I don’t know how people interpreted that and probably I’ve got a different view about whatever I was doing but as far as I’m concerned I knew what I was doing.
Those are two different pictures - if you’re talking about stripping and performing nude acts, it’s different to what people thought I was doing because I know what I was doing and I think I was doing what I would have done at that particular time. That is up to me to talk about it when I go home and explain it to my girlfriend.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion and freedom of speech so anyone can say I was cheating but maybe that’s not what was on the ground and when I go home I will talk to her. I know it’s not easy looking at the pressure she’ll get from people and the media saying that I was cheating but I’ll try by all means to explain myself and see how it goes from there.
Tashi: Did you give a thought to what your girlfriend would be feeling on the outside while she was watching?
Max: Um, I know it was not all that cool with her but definitely I’ll have to see when I get back home because I can’t talk on her behalf. I might say it was cool and it was not cool or I might say it was not cool and it was cool so I’ll have to see that when I go and meet her.
Tashi: When you were kissing Lerato - did you think: “I wonder how my girlfriend's feeling about this?”
(
4 sec silence)
Max: Well the thing is these things are difficult and the environment is different. We should also consider the fact that there’s the influence of alcohol. Some things that you can do in the house you might not do them on the outside. It’s up to me to explain and hopefully she’s going to get it.
Tashi: If your girlfriend was in the house and did what you did, how would you respond when she came out?
Max: I’d hear what she has to tell me and see how best we can discuss things and come up with a decision to benefit the two of us.
Tashi: So what do you think? Should she dump you?
Max: That one I don’t know, I’ll only know about that when I get home.
Tashi: If Richard hadn’t gone for Tatiana first would you have used her instead of Lerato as a sex weapon?
Max: No, I wouldn’t have used her - I got close to Tatiana before I got close to Lerato so if I wanted Tatiana at that particular time I would have gone for Tatiana but it’s not me to use women so I don't think I would have used her.
Tashi: Did you use Lerato?
Max: I did not use Lerato.
Tashi: Do you want her to win?
Max: Yes definitely, I think, from the people in the house, looking at the guys, the guy who was most intelligent guy there was Justice and the most intelligent girl is Lerato. She’s trying to do her best to lift her country’s flag up and she’s ben getting most of the leadership challenges - I would love her to win the show because of the way she’s performing.
Tashi: Who do you definitely not want to see win?
Max: I think I wouldn’t like um, let me look at them again … I wouldn’t like to pick on one person, everyone there has the chance to prove themselves.
Tashi: What do you think Lerato’s going to do now that you’re gone?
Max: I don’t know because I’m out of the show - all I know is that I was close to her and she was close to me and we used to be happy together but now that I’m gone I don’t know what effect that will have on her, that I can’t specify.
Tashi: If you were to do it all again, what would you do differently?
Max: I’d go back to unite the two groups.
Tashi: Why?
Max: Because when you’re in there there are two different worlds. There you think in a different way and outside you think in a different way. When I was in there I thought Code was against me but when I came out I was shocked to find out he was not against me. There are some who still think Code’s against them - after seeing what has happened I would go back and do the right thing at the right time.
Tashi: Would you say the house drove you paranoid?
Max: Yes.
Ends