The acting chief operations officer (COO) of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) Hlaudi Motsoeneng did not receive a wife as a “gift”, the young woman in question has claimed.
HumanIPO reported two weeks ago reports emerged in local newspaper the Sowetan Motsoeneng had been presented with a cow, a calf and the choice of a young bride by Venda chiefs in the Limpopo region, with Motsoeneng allegedly choosing 22 or 23 year old Vanessa Mutswari to be his gift wife.
The allegations caused uproar, with the South African Commission for Gender Equality launching a probe into the claims, while the country’s third political party the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) likened Motsoeneng’s disrespect of women to Nigeria’s extremist Islamic militia group Boko Haram.
Mutswari yesterday spoke up to deny the reports, saying she was not gifted as a wife to Motsoeneng, but was present only as part of a delegation presenting the livestock gifts in accordance with Venda tradition, reports the Mail and Guardian newspaper.
“I am standing before you. I am saying with my own mouth I was not given to anybody,” said Mutswari.
“That’s not our Venda tradition. I’m proud of what I am and my culture,” she said.
According to the Mail and Guardian report, Mutswari is engaged to be married to another man, and now fears the media attention surrounding the Motsoeneng allegations will disrupt the engagement.
“The Sowetan destroyed my [future] marriage,” she said.
“I have tried to explain to him [the fiancé] that those allegations are not true but… newspapers… radios are talking about it.
“Everyone wants to talk whatever they want. That’s why I am saying the Sowetan has destroyed my future marriage.”
The Sowetan has however maintained its original report was true.
“We stand by the story. We are not going to retract it,” Mpumelelo Mkhabela, editor of the Sowetan, told the Mail & Guardian.
“If anything, the organisers of the event must apologise to women in South Africa,” he said.
“They are trying to deflect attention instead of accepting responsibility for what they have done. They are using the paper as a scapegoat. They must not shoot the messenger. If they think there’s a problem, they must go to the press ombudsman or go to court.”
