“How to Ruin Love: The Proposal” (2024) is a newly released South African rom-com directed by siblings Katleho Ramaphakela and Rethabile Ramaphakela. This heartfelt and funny 4-episode series stars Sivenathi Mabuya and Bohang Moeko in the lead roles. The story revolves around the main character, Zoleka, who is an actress. Due to a misunderstanding, she sabotages her seemingly perfect relationship due to her insecurities. The series explores themes like communication, trust, and family, providing a fresh perspective on navigating the challenges of relationships.
Cast With Characters
- Zoleka (Sivenathi Mabuya): The protagonist of the series, is an actress who is insecure despite her seemingly perfect life. She values relationships deeply.
- Kagiso Phatudi (Bohang Moeko): Zoleka’s boyfriend who is a a hardworking entrepreneur supporting his family and struggling with boundaries.
- Amahle (Noxolo Dlamini): Zoleka’s carefree, loyal best friend, who is opposite to Zoleka’s calculated nature.
- Khutso Phatudi (Marjorie Langa): Kagiso’s logical, humorous mother, who manages the family chaos with responsibility.
- Papi (John Morapama): Head of the Phatudi family, he dedicates himself to helping others despite financial struggles.
- Martin (Dumisani Mbebe): Zoleka’s strict, conservative father with a complicated relationship with her.
- Liswa (Tina Jaxa): Zoleka’s supportive aunt
- Omphile Phatudi (Nefisa Mkhabela): A quirky, manipulative teenager, the surprise baby of the family.
- Doreen (Shoki Mmola): Papi’s penny-pinching sister, recently wealthy and known as the ‘rich aunty’.
- Katlego: Another sister of Kagiso.
- Makgotso: Kagiso’s cousin, Doreen’s daughter.
Plot Summary
Zoleka, who is an actress, is wrapping up the scene of her character’s wedding, worried about scripts for the following season. She is left unsure when she inquires about her contract. After seeing some odd behavior of her boyfriend, Kagiso, she starts to suspect that he may be having an affair with someone else. In order to impress his parents, Zoleka went home after and attended Kagiso’s sister, Omphile’s party, where things didn’t go as planned and she spoiled the traditional dish. She started being even more suspicious when Kagiso suddenly went away to Durban, so she followed him there. Zoleka located him and was shocked to see him proposing to her best friend, Amahle. Zoleka has a major outburst where she says a lot of hurtful things to Kagiso out of anger. However, it actually turned out to be a rehearsal proposal for Zoleka. At that point, it was too late, and Kagiso didn’t want to propose anymore.
How Did Zoleka and Kagiso Find Each Other?
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Kagiso had been involved with Zoleka for the past three years. On Valentine’s Day, three years ago, he met her when she was sad because of a breakup. As she was drowning her sorrows in wine at home, Kagiso appeared to deliver wine, as he had just introduced his new app. That evening spent together made Zoleka feel an instant bond with Kagiso. It felt like she had fallen for him on the spot. Since that night, they have not separated from one another and have loved themselves deeply.
Zoleka is a television actress in a telenovela called “Sinful Seductions,” while Kagiso was an app developer. More recently, they experienced some setbacks in their careers. Zoleka was going to be written off from the show, and Kagiso needed to sell his app to help save his family’s house after his father failed to pay the mortgage. Despite these issues, Zoleka had faith in their relationship since they loved and supported each other. They were planning on getting married and buying land from the savings that they had for their future home, which would also impress her father.
While the pair live together, they have some issues including letting Kagiso’s sister, Katlego stay with them and consequently invade their privacy. However, he’s too complacent to tell her to move out, much to Zoleka’s chagrin.
Things took a turn when on a night out their their friends, Zoleka found out Kagiso did not want to marry her. He claimed that she wasn’t “wife material.” She felt crushed. She hoped he was overreacting, but he confirmed it. While she was upset about it, she was also determined to prove him wrong.
On Kagiso’s sister Omphile’s 16th birthday, Zoleka decided to prove she was wife material. She was distracted since Kagiso was acting weird and caught him in a lie. She was constantly worried that Kagiso might be cheating on her, hence becoming more absent-minded until she ended up burning the food.
Did Zoleka Catch Kagiso Cheating On Her?
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Naturally, Kagiso’s family was not pleased and Katlego even agreed that Zoleka was not a good daughter in law. After that, it got worse. One day, Zoleka went home looking for Kagiso but found a condom on the couch. Katlego, who was present, denied knowing whom it was. Since Zoleka was cheated on before, she assumed it must have belonged to Kagiso, and thus he had been having an affair behind her back. His sister wasn’t of any help either, even though it was actually hers, because despite being in the process of divorcing, she was secretly seeing her husband. Katlego informed her that Kagiso went to Durban
Zoleka was restless and fretful, and when Kagisp went to Durban without telling her, she knew something wasn’t right. Therefore, she packed up her suitcase and left just so as to find him. At Durban beach, she was shocked to see Kagiso making a proposal for marriage to Amahle, her best friend, while their families were present beside them.
Utterly betrayed and heartbroken, Zoleka felt In an outburst of anger and a form of madness, she began yelling at Kagiso and Amahle with awful words, which she never even meant to say, like how she was grateful that she did not marry him, that his family was terrible, and that it was good riddance to them. She also revealed a lot of their secrets. She was about to leave after saying all those hurtful things when she saw a banner in a plane flying above her head with this line, “Zoleka, will you marry me?” It’s all clear now. There had been a huge misunderstanding.
He had decided to surprise her by proposing during this time. He was actually rehearsing with Amahle so as to do everything as planned for Zoleka in the right way. His comments about her not being “wife material” were meant to tease her and make the proposal an even bigger surprise. Kagiso misinterpreted Zoleka’s horrible words, thinking they were real, they decided that he should cancel the proposal because they would not end up together after all.
Zoleka went to the hotel and tried to apologise to Kagiso and his family but they weren’t too kind to her.
What Made Things Even More Complex?
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To make things worse, a video capturing the whole fiasco was shared by Kagiso’s cousin, and this badly affected Kagiso’s reputation and derailed his app selling project. As a result of the negative publicity, possible investors withdrew, and Kagiso could not look into other possibilities due to contractual restrictions. It also almost ended Zoleka’s job on the show. Their once-bright future suddenly became uncertain as it was marred by economic and reputational drawbacks.
Zoleka requests her father for a meeting with the Phatudis. She takes Omphile’s help to bring them to her father’s estate. To complicate matters further, their families became more embroiled in personal misunderstandings. Kagiso was a middle-class young man, only depending on the sale of his app to bring him stability financially. However, Zoleka came from one of the richest families in town, where her father is a prominent lawyer. For this reason, her father preferred her previous boyfriend, who was richer than Kagiso, as an ideal suitor for his daughter. Zoleka knew too well that wealth does not translate into emotional safety. The meeting ends badly and Kagiso goes to a club with Katlega where they meet his ex, Mapula.
“How to Ruin Love” (2024) Ending Explained: Did Zoleka Marry Kagiso?
Zoleka decided to apologize to Kagiso in an effort to save their relationship, admitting that she had been envious and distrustful without reason. However, her efforts took an unexpected turn when she found Kagiso’s ex at his house during her visit. Her initial fears were allayed when she discovered that they had met accidentally since the ex-wife came to visit Kagiso’s sibling as a pal, but not for romantic reasons.
Nonetheless, their efforts were futile, and thus the situation led to another argument. However, after some time, they cooled down and acknowledged that both of them had a desire to get married. They knew that marriage was about them being loyal to each other and having happiness and love for each other, even if others had different opinions in their lives. Zoleka proposed to him and they decided to get married in secret. Zoleka even made up with Amahle and called her to her wedding.
Unfortunately, a tweet about their elopement spoiled their plans for a quiet ceremony and causing the unexpected arrival of their families, which fueled more conflicts when Zoleka’s father brought her ex to the venue. A fight broke out between Kagiso and her ex. However, they were determined to get married with or without blessings and made it clear to their families.
Amidst all the chaos, Zoleka found out that Kagiso had withdrawn money from their joint account meant for building their future house. Zoleka felt hurt and started doubting whether she would go ahead with getting married, as she felt so betrayed by Kagiso. She refused to walk down the aisle. Upon finding out that Kagiso used those funds to clear his family debt or mortgage, Zoleka realized how wrong she was in terms of her judgment and misplaced mistrust. She admitted her selfishness and now values what Kagiso did for his family by assisting them financially. Ashamed of herself, Zoleka wondered whether what she had done would cause irreparable harm in the relationship. Kagiso stated that he doesn’t want to marry her anymore.
Zoleka sat down with her dad and opened up to him about Kagiso being the only person she would ever want to marry if she did get married. He had a eureka moment and realized that he had misjudged Kagiso unfairly. He also admitted that love should be pure emotion without involving money or other things like material stuff; therefore, his aim was to reach out to the family of Kagiso through an apology due to their misunderstanding as well as drama. Zoleka, with her family, went to visit the Phatudis, respectfully this time. However, they are shocked to know that Kagiso’s missing.
Simultaneously, at their usual meeting place, where they used to spend quality time together when they lived together, Zoleka found him again. She shared her feelings with him, saying how much she wanted their relationship to work and how much he was willing to put in. Moved by her genuine sincerity, Kagiso made a 180-degree turn. The families also relented in a heartfelt emotional ending. Kagiso got the blessings from Zoleka’s father.
Valentine’s Day arrived once more, so it would be a good time for new beginnings. Kagiso proposed an enchanting plan for Zoleka at the site of her dreams with his father’s permission on Valentine’s Day, thereby sealing their unity forevermore. Nothing was left unturned, as he even invited them all so that both families could sing along with her favorite musician, who had been brought by him only for this occasion alone. Her family gathered around them, and at which point, finally getting on his knees and popping the question, Kagiso asked Zoleka to marry him. Things ended on a happy note as their families came together to celebrate their engagement.
