Pro Twerkers to business, Malinga sisters make their next move
JOHANNESBURG — South African reality television personalities and entrepreneurs Samantha and Theressa Malinga are moving into podcasting with the launch of You Nuevo Know, a new show that will take audiences beyond their public personas and into conversations about business, relationships, personal growth and life in the creative economy.
The sisters, who became known to a wider television audience through MTV Base reality series Have Faith, say the podcast will draw on a journey that has taken them from dancing and entertainment into university, entrepreneurship and the beauty and wellness industry.
That history predates their reality television appearances. Samantha and Theressa were members of the Pro Twerkers dance group alongside Faith Nketsi and Refiloe Nketsi, part of an early period in which social media personalities increasingly began turning online audiences into careers in South African entertainment. Independent reporting from that period also identifies the Malinga sisters as members of the group.
You Nuevo Know represents another step in that transition, but this time the sisters will control the conversation rather than appear as personalities within someone else’s television format.
The name is drawn from Nuevo, their beauty and wellness business, which offers services including nails, hair, makeup, hair installations and skin wellness. The sisters are positioning the podcast as an extension of the business’s focus on confidence and self care, while giving the Nuevo name a presence beyond its physical services.
Rather than limiting the show to celebrity interviews, Samantha and Theressa say they want to examine what happens behind public images of success, including uncertainty, ambition, relationships, career decisions and the realities of building businesses.
“You Nuevo Know is about showing up as ourselves,” the sisters said in announcing the podcast. “We want to have the conversations people are often thinking about but do not always say out loud.”
They said being first time podcasters also meant they were approaching the project as something that could develop alongside its audience rather than presenting it as a finished formula.
The show is expected to feature creatives, entrepreneurs and industry professionals, with discussions spanning the beauty sector, reality television and the wider creative and digital economy. The sisters also intend to use their own experiences of working, studying and building businesses together as part of the programme.
That positioning puts You Nuevo Know into an increasingly crowded media space in which entertainers, influencers and entrepreneurs are building their own platforms instead of relying exclusively on broadcasters and traditional media to reach audiences.
For personalities such as the Malinga sisters, the attraction goes beyond simply having another show. A podcast provides a direct relationship with an existing audience while allowing its hosts to determine the subjects, guests and tone of conversations themselves. It can also extend a commercial brand into entertainment without requiring the programme to operate as conventional advertising.
The sisters appear conscious of the risk of becoming another celebrity podcast in an already competitive market. Their proposition instead rests heavily on their relationship as sisters who have experienced several stages of their careers together while developing different perspectives of their own.
Listeners can expect discussions combining humour and personal experiences with lessons from entrepreneurship, entertainment, education and family life.
The launch also marks an attempt to expand Nuevo from a beauty and wellness destination into a broader lifestyle identity. Whether audiences who know the sisters from television and social media will follow them into long form conversations will become the first test of that strategy.
You Nuevo Know is expected to be distributed through Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube, alongside other major podcast platforms.
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