Former finance minister Tito Mboweni has lifted the lid on life outside of Cabinet. Picture: AFP/File/Rodger Bosch
Sordid details of the alleged private lives of Finance Minister Tito Mboweni and Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe were splashed all over the front page of the Sunday World on Sunday, as the newspaper published details of what was described as a “love-triangle” between the two ministers and “slay queen” Lerato Habiba Makgatho.
The article is accompanied by screenshots of what appear to be Makgatho’s conversations with the ministers.
These include intimate sexual details of Makgatho’s experience with Mantashe, who she describes as a “tiger in bed”, compared to Mboweni, who is allegedly more conservative, and “wanted us to switch off the lights and cover ourselves”.
In one of the WhatsApp messages, the man identified as Mantashe complains that his relationship with Makgatho “already cost me more than 70K”. He worried that this will soon increase to “100K” after he was asked for more money.
Makgatho, who is 26-years-old and described as a “student and aspiring actress”, said that Mantashe was a “better blesser” than Mboweni, with the former giving her amounts of R10,000 and R15,000 at a time, while the latter would “only give me 3K once in a long time”.
Perhaps the finance minister was just being justifiably frugal with his money in these tough economic times.
The Finance Ministry’s chief of staff said Mboweni would not be available to comment today as he’s working on the budget speech, which is, in the minister’s defence, arguably more important than the revelations contained in the Sunday World front-page report.
Mantashe was not reachable for comment when contacted by The Citizen this morning.
It’s important to note that neither minister has been accused of any illegal activity, although this could be more of a scandal for Mantashe, who is married, than for Mboweni, who is not.
The full story is available in today’s edition of The Sunday World.
(Compiled by Daniel Friedman.)
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