Big Brother Africa drops contestants from Ghana

Ghana has been unceremoniously excluded from Big Brother Africa season 9, the producers of the reality TV Show, Endemol South Africa has said.

The decision was attributed to South Africa's more restrictive and highly controversial new visa regulations as filming would be done in Johannesburg. The company has now resorted to searching for Ghanaians already living in South Africa to fill the vacancies.

In a statement the company said Ghana's contestants "have not been rejected by MultiChoice Africa or Endemol due to the Ebola scare" but that Endemol SA "had to take the necessary measures to ensure Ghana is represented in Big Brother Africa IX and does not miss out of the show".

"The production company had no option but to find alternative Ghanaian candidates to audition in South Africa, as they could not hold up the process that lead up to the show."

Reports have it that the contestants did apply for visas for South Africa for the final stage of auditioning but their visas were not processed in time. There were also delays with the contestants producing additional documents such as bank statements.

They could only secure visas for a maximum stay of 30 days and no one was willing to take chances should the contestants eventually scale through to the final stages running up to 91 days. Besides South Africa’s new visa regulations stipulate that extension stays could only be made in the individual’s home country and no more in South Africa.

The reality show, shown on M-Net channels across Africa on DStv satellite pay-TV platform, is expected to start September 7, 2014.