By: Thapelo Ramorobi
If you’ve ever sat in a fluorescent-lit office wondering if your workplace is actually a low-budget satire, Die Kantoor might hit a little too close to home.
Showmax is taking a big swing by adapting The Office for South Africa, this time in Afrikaans, with a mockumentary setup we already know — but filtered through polony, BBBEE politics and that very specific local brand of workplace discomfort.
Instead of a paper company, we’re dropped into Deluxe Processed Meats, a business specialising in polony: the pink step-child of South African protein. It’s a clever choice — polony is cheap, dodgy, and a little embarrassing to admit you like, which makes it the perfect metaphor for an office where no one is exactly proud of where they work, but they’re clinging to the payslip anyway. Add a “fancier” head office, Deluxe Meats, looking down on them, plus the anxiety of a new BBBEE consortium buying into the company, and you’ve got a pressure cooker of insecurity, ego and desperation. Very The Office, very South African.
At the centre of it all is Flip, played by Albert Pretorius, fresh off a Fleur du Cap win. Flip is the office manager, the kind of guy who’s only been in charge for a year but is already convinced he’s the main character in a sports doc like Chasing the Sun. The documentary crew arriving is, in his mind, evidence that greatness has finally found him — which is exactly the kind of delusion that made David Brent and Michael Scott unforgettable.
Behind the camera, things get even more interesting. Bennie Fourie, known for Hotel and Magda Louw, is heading up writing and directing. He’s spent the last decade playing in the mockumentary sandbox, so there’s real potential here for something sharper than a simple carbon copy. He’s already made it clear this isn’t going to be a shot-for-shot remake in Afrikaans, but a reimagining that actually acknowledges South Africa’s mess, humour and office politics.
The cast list reads like a who’s who of local comedy and drama:
- Schalk Bezuidenhout, who knows his way around awkward humour from Kanarie and Hotel
- Veteran Lida Botha, who brings gravitas and timing
- Carl Beukes, Ilse Oppelt, Daniah de Villiers, Mehboob Bawa, Sipumziwe Lucwaba, and newcomer Gert du Plessis
It’s an ensemble built for reaction shots, silences, and the kind of cringe where you have to physically look away from the screen.
There’s also something quietly symbolic about Showmax doing this now. South African TV has been steadily creeping onto the international stage — from Thuso Mbedu’s Emmy nods off the back of Is’thunzi to Showmax and M-Net’s recent International Emmy nominations. Taking on The Office, one of the most beloved and heavily memed comedies on the planet, feels like a confidence move: “Yes, we think we can do this. In Afrikaans. With polony.”
Of course, that also means expectations are high. The Office is sacred territory for a lot of viewers. If Die Kantoor leans too hard on imitation, it’ll feel redundant. If it pushes too far away from the original, it risks losing the very DNA that made the format work: the horror of recognition. But based on the creative team and the premise, there’s reason to be cautiously optimistic.
Until it drops in January, you can always revisit the original run of The Office on Showmax and remind yourself how deeply uncomfortable a fake documentary about work can be. Then we’ll see if Die Kantoor can make South Africans laugh, wince, and maybe ask themselves a scary question:
“Is my boss… Flip?”
