‘This thing was a one-night stand and it happened just like that and it so happen that I regret that,’ says the sports minister.



Minister of Sports and Recreation Fikile Mbalula has finally opened up about the sex scandal he was involved in, calling it a situation that almost destroyed his life. He admitted to have had the affair with the then 27-year-old Joburg model, but said he never considered it suitable to call her his girlfriend.

“It is always reported that she’s my girlfriend; you know a girlfriend, it is someone who is steady, you go out with, you go to the movies and, even if you cheat, you’re always loyal to her and then you get caught. This thing was a one-night stand and it happened just like that and it so happens that I regret that,” he told Anele Mdoda in an interview on Real Talk.

Though the minister endured a lot during his struggle days, he says the model’s allegations that he had impregnated her made him think his life was over. This because, though the affair happened, he had not impregnated her.

Mbalula says it was ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe who advised him to admit that he was wrong.

“You are a married man,” he told him.

The affair, which he says he regrets having, almost broke his family apart, and in the end he bought his wife a diamond to apologise to her.

After the affair, the minister made headlines again for another scandal, this time on Twitter for nude pictures of a woman that were found on his timeline. After trending for hours, Mbalula defended himself and said his account had been hacked.

He reiterated this and told Mdoda that he tweets everything we see on his timeline, but said that if we see anything on his timeline being tweeted after 12am, then it’s not him.

Another scandal that hit Mbalula earlier this year was based on a picture that circulated on social media of him and famous blessee Amanda Cele. Twitter lashed out at him for the picture, questioning what kind of message he was sending if he was hanging out with Cele.

The minister again defended himself, saying that, as a public figure, he took pictures with everyone who asked, regardless of what they did “for a living”.

He, however, told Mdoda he does not mind the criticism he always receives, as he is a public figure and there are people who look up to him.

“As people who walk in the steps of a generation to inspire people, you get to learn that look.

“I’ve reached a stage in my life where for whatever that I do that is way out of line and it gets to be reported, it affects millions if not thousands of people – hundreds, you know. So kufanele ndihambe kancane (I must move slowly) and then look out.

“Like I can go to a pub but I cannot go out there sengingaboni (blindly), because those who follow me and want probably to be like me will not be impressed by that and [it] will destroy them. But most importantly the people you live with because they endure the pain of being traumatised,” he told Mdoda.