Johannesburg -He allegedly slapped her, tried to strangle her and smashed her cellphone against a wall. That’s the damning indictment by police against popular TV personality Tumisho Masha.
On Friday, the former Top Billing presenter appeared briefly in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court on charges of intent to cause grievous bodily harm and malicious damage to property at his and his wife Zozibini Mtongana’s upmarket home in Dainfern, north of Joburg.
Douglasdale police had arrested the actor this week for the alleged assault at the couple’s home on July 20 after an argument over Mtongana’s decision to sleep in the guest room. During his hour-long wait for the magistrate, Masha appeared anxious, staring at his cellphone, headphones on.
Mtongana had taken out an interim protection order against Masha immediately after the July incident, whose enquiry date was scheduled for Thursday. But on Wednesday, she laid charges against him.
Masha was arrested on Thursday morning while on his way to the Randburg court for the enquiry, and he was taken by police to the Douglasdale police station to be charged formally. Masha offered to vacate the matrimonial home and was released on bail. Yesterday, his lawyer refused to comment.
Last week in one of the last tweets on his Twitter timeline, Masha wrote: “Just because I am a celebrity, doesn’t mean I don’t make mistakes. Just cos I’m on TV it doesn’t mean I’m not real and just cos I’m smiling doesn’t mean I don’t hurt. Sometimes you just gotta say how it is.”
Domestic violence experts say in instances where abused women delay laying charges, it’s usually because they fear for their lives. Often, they wait until they feel safe to open a case. “Once a woman has been abused, they sometimes think it’s their fault,” explained Lisa Vetten, a research associate at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research.
Sometimes women blame themselves for being abused, she said. “But after speaking to someone they see that the abuser was wrong and then lay charges later.”
Vetten said another reason why victims of domestic violence would want their abuser arrested after the violent incident could be that they may want to move away from the abuser first.
Vetten also said the recently released national crime statistics do not reveal an accurate estimate of the number of domestic violence cases.
Nondumiso Nsibande, the executive director at the Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre to End Violence Against Women, agreed.
“There is reason to doubt that police statistics reflect the real nature of domestic violence because many people do not report the crime. In domestic disputes, the family is sometimes involved and would suggest the matter be sorted out internally before including police.”
Last month after Mtongana had filed an interim protection order against her husband, Sunday World reported that the actor allegedly kicked her in the stomach, slapped her in the face, pulled her by her hair, hit her with an elbow and called her “a bitch” in a series of domestic violence episodes at their home.
Masha denied the claims. He confirmed to Sunday World that the couple did have an argument, but insisted he never touched her but only broke her phone.
Mtongana met Masha a year after his much-publicised divorce from his first wife, Angel, and she married him in 2010.
In June, Masha was hijacked at gunpoint and held for five hours in Soshanguve,north of Pretoria, but escaped unharmed.
In a statement, he said South Africans should “not be held ransom to thugs”.
Earlier this year, EFF spokesman Mbuyiseni Ndlozi and Masha engaged in a heated war of words on Talk Radio 702 over controversial “racist” comments made by Rivers Church pastor André Olivier. Masha had insisted Olivier and the church were not racist.
The assault case has been postponed to October 7.
Saturday Star