Is Nota Baloyi begging for a lawsuit following controversial Somizi Mhlongo tweet?

Nhlamulo ’Nota’ Baloyi. Picture: Twitter

Nhlamulo ’Nota’ Baloyi. Picture: Twitter

Published Apr 6, 2023

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Controversial rapper and businessman Nhlamulo “Nota” Baloyi is at it again. This time he came out guns blazing for Somizi Mhlongo.

In one of his Twitter rants this week, Nota referred to Mhlongo a paedophile.

“Somizi is so scared of me, he can’t even go to the local Woolworths because he knows I’ll scream hide your kids a sex offender is on the lose (sic) when I see him,” tweeted Nota.

“Sex offenders shouldn’t be doing state TV shows!”

The controversial statement got tweeps wondering if Nota is perhaps begging for a lawsuit from Mhlongo for defamation of character.

In 2008, the Randburg Magistrate's Court found Mhlongo guilty of indecent assault.

According to the “Sowetan”, he was sentenced to four months imprisonment or a R6 000 fine. Half of the sentence was suspended for three years.

“The court found that Mhlongo had fondled Celani Njapha's private parts in his Lonehill home after offering him a lift on Rivonia Road last November,” reported the publication.

Njapha, who was 28, was returning from work at a restaurant in Rivonia in the early hours when Mhlongo gave him a lift.

In an interview with Tumi Morake and Martin Bester on Jacaranda FM about his memoir “Dominoes: Unbreakable Spirit”, Mhlongo spoke candidly about the incident.

“That’s the day that changed everything for me. I innocently gave somebody a lift. On the way … that person is a fan, and they are telling me how they love me, and it gets into flirting …

“From flirting, we found ourselves drinking whisky at home and then the next thing something happens and not even sexually. We were flirting and then we kissed. And then you wake in the morning and there are policemen at the door.”

He added that “the kissing and the foreplay were consensual but someone wakes up in the morning, feeling guilty or maybe thinking, ‘I’m going to ruin his life.’

“That changed everything for me. There are no regrets, only lessons learnt.”

Nota’s tweet came after Mhlongo was announced as one of the four panellists for the local version of the international hit show “The Masked Singer”.

Mhlongo will be joined by award-winning musician J’Something, DJ and social media influencer Sithelo Shozi and comedian and radio and TV presenter Skhumba Hlophe as the detectives on the show, which is set to air on S3 later this year.

Executive produced by Anele Mdoda, “The Masked Singer” is a singing competition in which performers are celebrities wearing elaborate head-to-toe costumes to conceal their identities from the host, panellists, audience and other contestants.

“We are not judges, we are detectives, we are just like the audiences but just have voices. We are in the dark, just like the audience, and trying to figure out who is behind the mask, just like the audience,” said Mhlongo at the press conference in Randburg on Tuesday.