By now you probably know that it has been a messy few weeks for Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba, his wife and ex-mistress squaring off in a battle that set social media alight.

Round two began when an eNCA interview with Nomachule Gigaba aired, where she stuck up for her husband and had some rather disparaging things to say about former mistress, Buhle Mkhize [pictured above from THIS tweet].

There were hashtags, there were slideshows, and there was name calling. What there wasn’t much of, however, was a closer look at Malusi and his history of infidelity.

The team at Business Day decided to fix this, offering up a timeline of the whole affair. We’re going in:

In a nutshell: the Gigabas got married in August 2014, a few weeks after Buhle, also known as “Boo Slayer” the minimally clad Instagram queen, claimed to have begun an online affair with Malusi. Malusi later denied the claim. Buhle got mad. Norma retaliated. Buhle apologised but, according to her records, carried on carrying on with Malusi.

Norma [above with Malusi] got madder and called Buhle a prostitute. Buhle stopped apologising and got nasty. Norma stood her ground and, eventually, Buhle went away and everyone forgot all about it.

Until now, because one of the questionable advantages of sharing your private matters on public platforms is that anyone can access your past at any time.

Going on national TV to belittle your husband’s former lover is like throwing petrol towards a dying fire, but no one expected Buhle to come out firing as hard as she did:

A volley of tweets from Buhle tore Norma to shreds on all fronts. It questioned Norma’s qualifications and hinted that she has links to the Guptas. She accused Norma of lying and called Malusi a “very black frog”. A Facebook post, which Buhle subsequently claimed to be false, threatened to reveal his private parts.

…if there is any veracity to this version of events, Malusi was the catalyst for all the unhappiness, as a weak and greedy waverer who tried to keep both women for himself while keeping them apart from each other.

That cartoon above by Carlos Amato for the Mail & Guardian.

We should backtrack a little to 2015, when Buhle published an essay online called ‘The Affair’, because it’s here that Malusi comes out looking like a right tool:

…she began flirting with Malusi on Instagram and later through private SMSes a few weeks before his wedding. She admitted to being involved at the time, but said Malusi made no mention of the fact that he was engaged. She discovered this when pictures were posted on his wedding day.

In the narrative, Buhle claimed that Malusi continued to pursue her after the wedding and convinced her he deeply cared for her, hence her outrage when his wife discovered this liaison and Malusi claimed Buhle had been the pursuer…

Buhle claimed to have received a substantial “gift” to stay away from Malusi. “He didn’t call it that or a bribe,” she wrote.

“He claimed he was just giving me a gift because he felt badly that I’d lost someone I love and went through so much because of him … his verse was now how much he loves me but must do what’s right, the usual married man crap.”

Now of course all of this is one person’s word against another, but in a country where so many politicians try to have their cake and eat it, one finds it tough to believe they ever take the moral high ground.

The article finishes with this:

All this may seem like nothing more than an idle distraction from more important matters.

But, taken as an allegory it becomes more sinister.

If the country Malusi has sworn to serve is his wife, and those whose actions destabilise South Africa are his mistresses, to whom will he ultimately be loyal?

The Guptas might not possess the same attributes as “Boo Slayer”, but I reckon they have some firepower of their own.

[source:businessday]