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, Sipumizwe 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.”
January is always that time where reality checks in, where we have to face our biggest demons and horrors — The Office is a good representation of what we go through all year round, having to face that impossible boss and keep your calm just enough to get through the next day and the day after.
Die Kantoor is the exact representation of that day at the office, especially when you have a boss like Flip and has no filter on what he says or does. If anything, Die Kantoor is a direct adaptation of The Office but in Afrikaans and wholly South African. So if The Office is your favourite TV show, you surely will enjoy Die Kantoor.
As much as the TV show is an exact interpretation of the famous mockumentary created by Greg Daniels for the American version and Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant for the British version, Bennie Fourie surely created what I could say is a masterpiece. Basically, Bennie has brought the well known TV series to african soil and made the whole mockumentary be about a processed meat office that sells polony.
The Showmax series not only brings the well known BBC series to home grounds by name and characters but cultural reference and emotional relevance making it even more relatable and relevant. So for the rainbow nation; The Office has been brought closer to home.
The comedic mockumentary makes use of both soft and natural lighting which makes the whole TV series feel natural and within reach, kind of making it raw and natural which makes the audience more pulled in and fully invested from the very first minute. The cinematics are not only the attention grabbers, but the clean use of sound — having just the necessary effect and no unnecessary sound effect makes experience quite realistic — kind of living in the moment.
With no doubt the South African version of The Office, Die Kantoor is a sure way of unwinding after a long day at work especially after facing a boss like Flip where everything is a failed joke.
