The People's Poet, Mzwakhe Mbuli, has been accused of using the death of South African celebrities as an opportunity to scam their families of money.
According to Thabiso Mosia, a man claiming to be Mandoza’s brother, Mzwakhe pretended to offer his help for Mandoza’s funeral, but it was allegedly a scam.
In a lengthy Twitter thread yesterday, Thabiso accused Mzwakhe of fundraising for Mandoza’s funeral through politicians, but the family never received the money.
“Saddened by Oom Ray's passing.Even sadder hearing that Mzwakhe Mbuli is already doing the talking. He's only there to steal money. Trust me,” the thread began.
Thabiso claims that during preparations for Mandoza’s funeral, he was in several meetings with Mkwakhe and his “cronies” who tried to steal money by offering to provide food, sound, and venue hire.
“Part of the scam.They ask the family how they can help(venue hire,food, transport, sound).They then go to Ministers/MEC's to ask for the $$,” Thabiso tweeted.
According to Thabiso, ministers and MECs would then give Mzwakhe the money he asked for, but he would pretend that he didn’t get enough money.
“Mzwakhe wanted 70k to organize sound for MDZ funeral. We(fam) said no cos @ArthurMafokate was offering his sound for free. Mzwakhe threw a fit. Mzwakhe and his cronies then dropped their soumd price to 35k. We still said no. They went berserk and went to consult outside. I WAS THERE,” he continued.
Thabiso also claims to have overheard Mzwakhe telling his “cronies” that they should give up because there was no money for them.
“Mzwakhe and a guy called Morris Roda told us that had secured S Bank Arena for MDZ memorial. We were relieved until I asked them for proof. Day before MDZ memorial they still couldn't provide proof. I drove to SB Arena only to find management hadn't even spoken to them. Was shocked. S Bank Arena told me they do this all the time and we should not trust them,” Thabiso said.
He continued to make more allegations about Mzwakhe and how he would extract money from politicians claiming to use it for the funeral.
Mzwakhe allegedly asked ministers and MECs for R100 000 each and he raised R200 000 but the money never made it to the family or the funeral.
“Minister Mthethwa is the only one that didn't give them 100k cos his advisor contacted us first to ask if they should give Mzwakhe the money,” said Thabiso.
Thabiso went on to allege that in addition to scamming families and politicians of money, Mzwakhe also ran a scam with the funeral programme.
“MDZ funeral ran 55 mins late cos Mzwakhe (MC) put his own pastors/ singers on the programme. And at Grace there's a fine for being over time. Mzwakhe asks pastors/singers for $ so he can put them in the program for what he terms 'exposure'. He didn't want the family Rev to preach!” Thabiso tweeted.
