South African’s have reacted to Ntsiki Mazwai’s blog post about the black economy in which she speaks about Bonang Matheba and whether or not she owns House of BNG.
Last week Bonang crashed Twitter Spaces with her audio stream when she announced that she had terminated her contract with her management company, CSA Global.
The statement read: “Today, I announce that I’ve terminated that contract… and they no longer represent me or any of my business ventures.
“Furthermore, I have instructed my lawyers to investigate the possibility of criminal conduct by the company and its representatives.
“I will revert over the next few days with more updates, so that others can be aware of what I consider as their very unsavoury behaviour.“
In response, CSA Global said in a statement to IOL Entertainment that Bonang was in breach of multiple contracts and had been derelict with her brands for the past six months.
CSA said it had been waiting for a response to the legal letters sent to her lawyers and denied Bonang’s allegations.
Now reports that CSA Global “muscled” out of her sparkling wine brand House of BNG has surfaced, and brought back the spotlight on Ntsiki’s blog post in August.
Titled “What Black Economy?”, the controversial poet discussed how black South African’s don’t have “a lived experience of ownership outside the white gaze and control.”
Ntsiki added that she had researched who owned the House of BNG and found Bonang’s name was just used to sell the brand.
“A few years ago we were told Bonang had a champagne range.
“We as black people swallowed this up quickly despite us knowing black people don’t really have vineyards.
“We didn’t ask any questions. We had a new winemaker to celebrate.
“The media did EVERYTHING to promote the new sparkling wine, from print to digital, to TV, white capital promoted this sparkling wine.
“On researching the wine I found that it was a Woolworths wine by some white dude. It had always been on the shelves and wasn’t selling. Basically, they put the brand Bonang on it, to sell to a new market… blacks,” wrote Ntsiki.
While Matheba trended and social media users shared their opinions on the recent reports, many also referenced Ntsiki’s blog.
See below
We lose nothing for apologizing what we did to Ntsiki, she has been telling us the truth that we aint ready for, https://t.co/yitSUKGPhP
— Gee (@Munyai_Gundo__) October 17, 2021
I remember someone said this and we said they are hating on Bonang .
— Country Girl 🇿🇦 🇳🇬🏳️🌈 (@Realnondumis) October 17, 2021
Sis Ntsiki told y'all and explained this in her blog kodwa nathi unomona.
— iNtokazi yakwaHlubi (@ZiieRadebe) October 17, 2021
The White man's economy would never let a black-owned business in their shops unless they benefit or have control of it.
House of BNG is a White man's business, Bonang was just the face. https://t.co/a39xwLB6bB
This Bonang saga with regards to Ntsiki Mazwai shows how much the urge to fit in on social media drives people to reject knowledge & hate on people for no absolute reason of their own.
— Qhawe (@Qhawe___L) October 18, 2021
People who share harsh truths are branded as haters of people who present beautiful lies.
But @ntsikimazwai has been saying this all along. Nathi she hates successful Black women. 😬
— Mbali Mthethwa 🌼 (@mbalizma) October 17, 2021
In October last year, Ntsiki shared her doubts over whether Bonang actually owned the sparkling wine which carries her name.
In a series of tweets, Ntsiki insinuated Bonang was Mmusi Maimane to Woolworths’ Helen Zille.
Ntsiki, in questioning the validity of Bonang’s business, said the “Being Bonang” star only posted sunglasses and outfits instead of entrepreneurial posts.
“It baffles me how you can be a business mogul but your contribution is posting pics in sunglasses and outfits.... But you never post entrepreneurial posts that a person in your position would. If the journey was real,” she said.