Rough week, round two? Somizi due in court over Mbalula lockdown ‘joke’

Somizi Mhlongo’s alleged breach of the Disaster Management Act will go to trial on 12 October this year. The media personality appeared in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court earlier this morning (12 August). However, the matter was postponed.

SOMIZI’S ROUGH WEEK LEADING UP TO COURT DATE

Somizi had a rough week last week with the abuse allegations made against him by his estranged husband, Mohale Motaung which was followed by both the SABC and Multichoice releasing statements confirming Somizi has “taken some time off” from his radio gig on Metro FM and his judge role on Idols SA. 

Now, he’s dealing with a previous “bad” joke he made involving Minister Fikile Mbalula and the lockdown last year. 

SOMIZI’S ‘BAD JOKE’

Somizi landed himself in hot water before the lockdown extension was announced in April 2020 when he and his Metro FM co-host Dineo Ranaka went Instagram live.

The pair were discussing their thoughts on what President Cyril Ramaphosa would announce on his national address when Somizi implied he knew there was going to be an extension of the lockdown and he attributed this knowledge to having received confirmation from Fikile Mbalula who currently serves as the minister of transport. 

“Today they’re announcing the extension. I was talking to Fikile,” said Somizi, before Dineo went offline after confirming that the Fikile in question was the minister.

Contravening Disaster Management Act

Somizi’s lawyer, Jaya Moodley, explained that the comment led to Somizi being charged on Section 27 of contravening the Disaster Management Act for name dropping and misinformation by Mbalula.

“Somizi, in April last year, 2020, he apparently made a remark to Dineo Ranaka on radio Metro that the lockdown will be extended and she asked him how he knows that and he said that Fikile Mbalula told him,” said Moodley to The Citizen.

“So he was charged in terms of Section 27 of contravening the Disaster Management Act. This was a live Instagram chat and somebody very mischievously screen recorded that from Instagram and just before the president [Cyril Ramaphosa] could announce the lockdown, they published this on various social media platforms,” he added.

Somizi later took to social media to apologise to Mbalula, saying that it was a “bad” joke he made just to scare Ranaka based solely on his own observations.

Although Mbalula explained that he accepted Somizi’s apology, he affirmed that he was obligated to lay charges against Somizi so no one could accuse him of having “favourites”. 

SOMIZI DUE IN COURT IN OCTOBER 

Somizi’s lawyer complained that the matter has been postponed too many times for their liking. During that time a warrant for Somizi’s arrest had been issued and withdrawn. Somizi was also released on bail in April. Moodley also stated that the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) has not yet made a decision regarding the matter.

“So I decided today that we’re fed up of the director of public prosecutions, we are going to postpone it for trial, there is no case against Somizi,” said Moodley.