Three granddaughters of South Africa’s former president Nelson Mandela are planning to star in a television reality show about their family.

The three young women appeared at a news conference in Johannesburg Thursday. They and the South African and American producers working with them say they hope a TV series will showcase the emerging middle class in post-apartheid South Africa.

The three young businesswomen, ranging in age from 27 to 34, spent much of their youth in the United States. No details of when or where the reality series might appear were disclosed, but producers say the show will be ready to debut next year.

One of Mr. Mandela’s graddaughters, Swati Dlamini, said the show’s main theme would not be their family, but instead focus on their lives as young black women in South Africa.

Her cousin Dorothy Adjoa Amuah cautioned against comparisons to a wildly popular and wealthy family of American reality stars. She said the young women are “definitely not the African Kardashians.”

The third granddaughter is Zaziwe Dlamini-Manaway. She and Swati Dlamini are the granddaughters of Mr. Mandela’s second wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Dorothy Adjoa Amuah is the daughter of his first wife, the late Evelyn Mandela.

The 93-year-old former president, South Africa’s first black head of state, is not expected to appear in the TV series. Before Mr. Mandela was able to enter politics openly, he spent 27 years in prison as an opponent of the country’s former apartheid system that barred blacks’ access to senior levels of government.