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Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba was the talk of the town this week as his alleged New York-based side dish published a letter detailing her alleged affair with the married man.
Stylist Buhle Mkhize claimed, in her open letter, that Gigaba was the one who initiated the affair.
She claimed Gigaba sent her private, flirtatious messages on Instagram, that she only found out on social media that he was married, and that he pleaded with her to stay in their relationship. She claimed the only reason he got married was because he wanted to “succeed politically and because he had kids with Noma and it wouldn’t be the right image for him to have the record of an ugly divorce and then a baby mama”.
She also alleged that, just after his honeymoon, Gigaba told her he loved her, and that after the allegations of the affair hit social-media sites, Gigaba made arrangements with intelligence agencies to have R500 000 given to Mkhize in exchange for her silence.
Her silence was needed because Gigaba’s wife, Noma, was already having it out publicly with the alleged side chick. The spat saw Noma accuse Mkhize of pursuing her husband. She called her “a prostitute”.
In a statement released after the letter went public, Gigaba said: “My family, in particular my wife, have been subjected to a protracted campaign of public embarrassment and cyberharassment. I regret exposing my family to such an individual, but truly can only blame myself. The defamation has left me no option but to speak out and seek legal remedies to protect my loved ones.”
Noma told City Press: “I don’t want to entertain this.”
Mkhize did not respond to requests for comment.
After the scandal broke, City Press went to other women who had allegedly been cheated on to ask them how they found out about what their husbands were doing.
Seipati Monama (36) told City Press how she caught her husband – she was busy loading groceries into a trolley when she noticed her three-year-old son smiling and waving at a woman she did not recognise.
She told her son to stop entertaining strangers.
The little boy replied: “She is not a stranger; don’t you know her? It’s Aunty Nono.”
Suddenly, she remembered that a Nono once called her husband but hung up when she answered. When she confronted her husband about the call, he became defensive and accused her of malicious intentions before storming out of the house.
“As I stood in the queue waiting to pay, that scene kept playing in my mind,” she said. “My son told me that his dad took him to Aunty Nono’s beautiful house, where he played with her son, who is the same age as him.”
She added that she wanted to look for Nono in the shop and pummel her.
“But I told myself that it wasn’t really her fault, but my husband’s. He is the one who left our home and chased after this woman.”
But mistresses also have their side of the story, as Mkhize’s letter has shown.
Xola Menzi says she can relate because she met a handsome man at an industry function and didn’t know he was married. He was smart, good looking and had a swagger about him she says she couldn’t resist.
In the weeks that followed, romance blossomed and Menzi fell for the dashing, well-spoken man.
The 27-year-old smiles when she describes the long talks they had, how they planned their careers together and how compatible they were.
“But my demise has always been my curiosity. So I did a bit of research on the guy,” she said.
Menzi found out that the man was married, with a “precious” daughter. He had another life he had never mentioned or even hinted at.
On their next date, Menzi asked if she was his mistress. He denied it. That evening, back at her house, Menzi found the man’s wedding ring in his car and his phone kept ringing.
“He didn’t want to answer it, but I forced him to. That night, he left at 3am. I knew he was going to his wife. I didn’t know whether to simply leave him or tell his wife about his ways,” she added.
“But I couldn’t bring myself to tell her.” – Staff reporters
