The first few minutes of episode one of the new season of Kelly Khumalo’s reality show, “Life With Kelly Khumalo”, offers an apt glimpse into the controversial Afropop artist’s current mindset.
Responding to Radio 702 host Relebogile Mabotja's question about how she’s coping with all the external noise and scrutiny around her alleged involvement in a cover-up of the murder of Senzo Meyiwa, Khumalo replied sharply. “I’m not coping. I’m living.
“And secondly, the noise is external. It has absolutely nothing to do with me. When I’m needed, and when the time is right, the world will hear my voice. So whatever noise they're making has absolutely nothing to do with me.”
Khumalo went on to add how this isn’t the only case that has been a failure in the South African justice system, but just because she’s involved, it’s being magnified and made to seem like something peculiar.
It’s Khumalo responding with the fire and vigour that many, myself included, have admired about her over the years.
When she's challenged or confronted with adversity, Khumalo never seems to waver. She has a sense of confidence and conviction about her that most of us can only dream of.
On Monday, a day before the first episode's release on Showmax, Khumalo joined reporter Slindelo Masikane for an exclusive interview on eNCA.
Her comments during the interview have since been widely circulating on social media, with one particular eyebrow-raising comment in which Khumalo appeared to discredit Meyiwa’s status at the time of his death, sparking debate. "First of all, I was Kelly Khumalo before Senzo Meyiwa," she said in a viral clip.
"I did not know who Senzo Meyiwa was until a friend of mine explained to me who he was. Nobody knew who Senzo Meyiwa was until he was attached to the brand Kelly Khumalo.”
It’s an extraordinary statement, given the circumstances. While there are some that agree, many on Twitter are not buying it.
“When Senzo was alive, we were still confusing Kelly Khumalo with Khanyi Mbau," one user commented. “What does she mean she was bigger than thee Senzo Meyiwa? The nerve.”
Even if that was the case, it’s a rather distasteful and tone-deaf statement to make at this time.
In her quest to vindicate herself, this line of combative discourse seems to be her modus operandi from here on out.
Towards the end of the fascinating episode of her reality show, Khumalo went so far as to launch an attack on Meyiwa’s family.
“That family did not love Senzo," she said to her friend Wanda Baloyi. “They never loved him. He was a cash cow. You know the first thing that woman (his mother) said when Senzo passed on? ‘Who's going to feed us?’ Your son is dead. The only thing you’re thinking about is flippen food?”
She went on to add how he would give all his money to his family and be left broke, which forced her to take care of him.
In the interview with eNCA, Khumalo, sitting alongside her lawyer Magdelene Moonsamy, doubled down on her offensive by slamming the justice system and claiming that we are all victims of its failures.
“We have a problem in our country, and this is not just about Kelly Khumalo, the musician. This is about an individual in the pits and darkest place of wherever it is, where they lose loved ones, and justice is not served.
“I once said something about this on my Instagram page. To my surprise, I had a lot of people saying they support and agree with what I am saying because they are some of the South African citizens who have been robbed of justice in this country because, for some reason, the law is not playing the part it is supposed to play. That is what every South African is going through.”
Khumalo went on to add that she has had her and her family’s lives threatened multiple times.
“I feel like the law is not coming into place to protect and make me feel like it is within my right to have protection for myself and family,” she said.
Through these public comments, she has swiftly hijacked the spotlight.
Despite all the ongoing controversy (which includes Advocate Malesela Teffo's recent bombshell that he has an eye-witness that's going to testify that Khumalo shot and killed Meyiwa by mistake), Khumalo seems to be coasting and making the most of the situation by promoting her brand.
During the interview with eNCA, she even responded to some of the questions by saying that people would have to watch her reality show for the answers.
This calls to mind how in Sara Blecher's five-part Netflix docuseries, “Senzo: Murder of a Soccer Star”, which revisits Meyiwa's relationship with Khumalo and the events leading up to his fateful murder, Khumalo appeared to show very little emotion despite the traumatic tragedy that had befell her.
In the docuseries, Blecher also broached the subject of a cover-up and bribery as she explored that there are a lot of inconsistencies in the case, which consists of two dockets, something experts say is bizarre.
Khumalo didn’t look like a grieving girlfriend then, and now she appears to be going on the offensive.
In her efforts to own her story amidst all the public scrutiny, it seems to me that Khumalo has increasingly started to weave her own reality. An alternate reality where, despite there being a unresolved crime in which she is implicated and a grieving family (and country) that lost a precious son, she is both the ultimate victim and victor.