Johannesburg - Is popular social media personality Bonang Matheba a hard-working, charming and business-savvy young woman – or the beautiful and manipulative relationship-wrecker that a litany of allegations has sought to portray her as?
This must be the question in the minds of friends and foes alike as claims about her love life set social media on fire, with followers battling to make sense of her alleged steamy affair with AKA, purported details of which have been laid bare by DJ Zinhle, the hip-hop artist’s former lover and the mother of his newborn child.
In a highly publicised post from her MomentsbyDJZinhle.com blog on Thursday afternoon, DJ Zinhle, whose real name is Zinhle Jiyane, broke her silence about the alleged affair between Matheba and AKA, who was born Kiernan Jarryd Forbes.
Jiyane put this message on her blog: “A week before our daughter was born, I found out about an affair between Kiernan (the father of my child) and Bonang Matheba. I also received confirmation of all rumours through an honest conversation which I had with Kiernan, who confirmed that the affair had been going on for over five months. I will always respect him for his honesty,” wrote Jiyane.
This is the blog that set tongues wagging and left questions in the minds of followers of the sometimes volatile career of Matheba about whether she had been wrongfully accused in the scandals that had followed her in recent years or whether she was the manipulative man-eater her rivals painted her as.
Before details of the Bonang-AKA-DJ Zinhle love triangle surfaced, Matheba was romantically linked to Nigerian sensation D’banj. The two did not confirm their relationship, but it was publicly sealed with a kiss live on television during the MTV Music Awards in July after they had walked the red carpet together.
The fling did not last long after D’banj declared his love for another woman on Twitter – said to be ex-beauty queen, Adama Indimi, daughter of Maiduguri, Nigeria, multimillionaire, Alhaji Mohammed Indimi. Matheba was later quoted as saying: “I don’t have a man boo.”
It was said Indimi and D’banj had dated before, but that they allegedly parted ways over D’banj’s relationship with a “South African on-air personality”, meaning Matheba. Rumour had it that D’banj declared his love for Indimi on social media after it emerged that Bonang was seeing AKA.
After the social media uproar of the Jiyane post, the Sowetan reported on Friday that Matheba has sought legal advice. She was quoted by her publicist as saying she had not had an affair with AKA. “We can confirm that Ms Matheba is not involved in a relationship, as she has always stated. Bonang is solely focused on her work.”
Matheba’s troubles with relationships started coming to the fore when she went through a much-publicised break-up with rapper Slikour.
In June 2012, she accused then-boyfriend DJ Euphonik of assaulting her. She withdrew the charges when the two rekindled the relationship. Last year, Euphonik accused Kaizer Chiefs goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune of touching Matheba inappropriately. Drum Magazine reported that the two men had a heated argument.
Khune and his girlfriend, Minnie Dlamini, later broke up, but did not confirm that it was in any way related to the scuffle.
Now Matheba is allegedly to be “the other woman” in the break-up between AKA and DJ Zinhle.
Is she the queen that she says she is or is she another example of a devil wearing Prada?
The Sunday Independent