Get to know Soweto’s Shebeen Queens in exciting new Showmax reality series

Showmax is set to debut a new reality show Shebeen Queens on August 22, 2024, with new episodes airing every Thursday. The show features the dynamic women behind three of Soweto’s most renowned shebeens: Alina’s Place, Big Mama’s Tavern, and Rams Tavern.

Produced by Barkers Media, known for How To Manifest A Man, Shebeen Queens offers an in-depth look at the lives of three remarkable entrepreneurs—Alina Sishange, Emily Thabang Leeuw (a.k.a. Big Mama), and Xoliswa Shwayimba. The series captures their efforts to juggle the demands of parenting while managing their thriving businesses in the fiercely competitive and traditionally male-dominated shebeen industry.

“Shebeen Queens unpacks the myths we grew up being told and were made to believe about women who run shebeens,” says producer Mpho Lengane. “The audience is going to be entertained: Barkers Media and Showmax have created something magical. Never has there been on screen such raw, relatable stories that will speak to the women’s spirit of wanting to nurture their family, having to forego their soft feminine nature in order to take on masculine energy so that they can run businesses and households, and once in a while drop their guard so that they can allow the men in their lives to love them the way a woman should.”

The Shebeen Queens:

Alina Sishange

Alina’s world is an unconventional mix of faith and temptation: she is a shebeen owner, traditional healer and pastor. This means her life is a constant balancing act, faced with challenges and criticism from multiple sides. While her unorthodox lifestyle may not be understood by many, she is fearless in her quest to claim what’s rightfully hers.

Emily Thabang Leeuw a.k.a Big Mama

Big Mama does not shy away from confrontation: she will take on anyone that stands between her and the success of her shebeen. Big Mama has a tumultuous relationship with her older children, who resent the shebeen and the environment it created for them to grow up in. Big Mama and her daughters are in court, defending themselves against a client who opened a case of physical violence against them. They stand to lose their trading licence if they are found guilty.

Xoliswa Shwayimba

Xoliswa is the life of the party: she loves dancing and having fun, so if you spot her, she’ll likely be on her feet grooving to amapiano. Xoliswa started off as a domestic worker but now runs Rama Tavern and provides for her four siblings. Although Xoliswa and her fiancé Joshua Mtshali don’t have children together, they have five children between them. Xoliswa wants Mtshali to set a date for their white wedding, give her a big gold ring, and divorce his first two wives so they do not interfere in her inheriting the shebeen.

Watch the trailer