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Allegations have surfaced that boxer Dingaan Thobela punched and pointed a gun at beauty queen Basetsana Kumalo back in the day when they were the “It” couple.
This startling news comes barely a day after our sister newspaper Sowetan published explosive claims by Thobela that the former Miss Soweto and Miss SA was only 16 years old when she was in a vat en sit customary marriage with him.
This turn follows the publication of Thobela’s book, Rose of Soweto, the Dingaan Thobela Story.
The autobiography has elicited strong reaction from Bassie’s friends.
One of them, who prefers to remain anonymous, says in the story Thobela proclaims undying love for Kumalo, yet he once beat her up and pointed his 9mm handgun at her when she wanted to break up with him.”
Thobela denies this claim. He says he had a gun but never pointed it at Bassie.
The friend continues: “His girlfriends used to call this woman he says he loves, boasting about what they did to him in bed, ” says the friend. He’s just using her to sell his book.”
A former University of Venda roommate and matron of honour at Kumalo’s wedding, Maria Nekhudzhiga, says she’d warned Kumalo that Thobela wasn’t good for her.
“I could pick up from my conversations with her that the guy was not good for her,” she says.
Nekhudzhiga says that the last straw was when Thobela, in a fit of rage, punched Kumalo at the Rand Show when he found her signing autographs. Thobela also poured cold water on this claim.
“Why would I hit someone for signing autographs?” he says.
“Kumalo herself denied this incident at the time.”
Thobela says a wrong impression has been created about why he wrote about Kumalo.
“I wrote about my life and Bassie happened to be part of that. If you read the book you will realise it’s not about her,” he says. “My suspicion is that the person who says this doesn’t know much.
“Bassie and I lived together in Kelvin before she went to Univen,” he says. “I would pick her up from Univen and take her home during term breaks. Of course her and my parents gave their blessings.”
Asked if he doesn’t think he’s opening himself up to a statutory rape charge for saying he lived with an underage girl, he says: “I say we lived together – which is true – I don’t say what we did.”
Kumalo’s lawyer, Peter Tshisevhe, says he is not in a position to comment because he hasn’t read the book yet.
A seething Kumalo, who is married to Vodacom executive Romeo Kumalo, refuses to comment “out of respect for my husband”.
“But I think it will be prudent to instruct my lawyer to read the book and if there are any defamatory things, advise me on what action to take,” she says, adding she’s dismayed that Thobela used her parents “who are not there to answer for themselves”.
Kumalo’s father died in 2002 and her mother in 2006.
mzwandile@sundayworld.co.za
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