Johannesburg - Actress and businesswoman Sonia Mbele found herself topping the social media trends on Wednesday after her son Donell Mbele’s girlfriend accused him of violent abuse.
In a lengthy statement shared on her Twitter and Instagram accounts, the former “Generations” star condemned her son over the abuse allegations.
“I woke up this morning to a different world, a world I thought I had long buried. From the age of 17 to 26, I was with a man who was abusive, physically, psychologically and emotionally,” Sonia shared in a statement.
“I'm mentioning this so that you understand that as a woman who has suffered all kinds of abuse, I do not stand for support or condone such a stance. These are struggles I've spoken about extensively in my early career to encourage other women in similar situations,” she posted.
Sonia further explained that she was not aware of her son's behaviour and wished Reokeditswe had reached out to her earlier. She “reassured” Reokeditswe that she has her full support and insisted that Donell must face the consequences of his actions.
“As a mother, I wish she had come to me to inform me on what was going on because finding out on social media broke my heart. I've always been there, I've always been supportive.
“With that said, Donell will face his demons and take accountability for his actions and let the law take its course. I refuse to raise a man like his father. Rehab, therapy and internal healing will prevail,” added Sonia.
Taking to her Instagram page, a young woman named Reokeditswe Makete shared pictures of her bruised face, alleging that was the result of Donell’s physical abuse.
She captioned the post: “Donell is deleting my posts he’s logged into my account and is deleting all my posts that are exposing him.”
She also shared on her Insta stories, details of the alleged abuse she suffered at the hands of Donell, also alleging that Donell threatened to kill her.
“He ripped my nail off today while he was hitting me and dragging me around the house. This man has threatened to kill me.”
“This man abused me on four different occasions, each time worse than the last,” wrote Reokeditswe on her Insta stories.
“And in the most recent time I wanted to press charges but was conflicted by so many things. Firstly my love for him, I put him before myself abs all I thought about was his future and how selfish I'd be to ruin it, secondly his mother is public figure so I didn't what to drag her into it.
“But after today when he hit me, suffocated me and dragged me around his house... I realised this man isn't going to change...”
Reokeditswe also shared an emotional video of herself crying, stating that Donell logged her out of her social media accounts and deleted all her posts “because he doesn’t want everybody to see what a bad man he is.”