After days, of queries and investigations, it is not clear what has led to the cancelation of Season 3 of Sonia Mbele’s Real Housewives of Johannesburg as cast members have opened cases of assault against each other.
This comes after it was reported over the weekend that DJ Tira’s wife, Gugu Khathi and RHOJ star Brinnette Seopela allegedly assaulted Christall at a popular lounge in Pretoria where filming was taking place.
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Speaking to TRUELOVE, Christall explains that the ordeal happened as a result of what happened when the show’s cast members were filming in Kenya.
“Firstly, there was an incident in Kenya where Brinnette hosted a dinner against me and got all the girls to talk about me in such a nasty way. She said that I was the problem and called me out. She had this whole speech planned at the beginning of the evening to lay the table about me,” she claims.
“During the dinner she said things that weren’t nice and labeled me as a white supremacist, racist and all sorts of things like that. She said that I don’t know how to love or how to receive love. The evening ended off as a nightmare because everyone was screaming at each other and there was chaos. But we moved on from that and came back home to South Africa. A week later we decided to all meet and we started by playing a netball match and we were all friends. And then we went to a club in Pretoria where I decided to address how they treated me in Kenya. I approached Brinnette and asked why she had treated me that way and why she had called a dinner against me where all the girls were ganging up on me,” she added.
According to Christall, that’s when an argument broke out and Gugu intervened by screaming at her in defense of Brinnette.
“She then became violent and started pushing me on the shoulder. I walked out after that thinking that the argument had died down and then it was the end of that,” she continued.
“But that was not the case," she adds. She says when she returned back inside an hour and a half later, she found Gugu and Brinnette having changed into more casual outfits.
“They were coming for me and were very aggressive. They were saying really abusive things to me and that’s when one of the girls there called the bouncer. He stood next to where I was sitting and they continued throwing insults at me until I tried to get away from them.”
Christal alleges that the pair (Gugu and Brinnette) then followed her and the bouncer towards the toilet and were trying to hit her until they succeeded.
“Gugu at this stage did assault me again and she took her hand and struck me on my throat. They were really coming for me; it was almost like they were possessed. We were trying to get away from them and I went to go sit down at the lounge and these girls (Gugu and Brinnette) continued to attack me while the bouncer was protecting me. They were going around him and at that moment it was almost as if Gugu was asking me to go to her so we could talk,” she said.
“When I moved over towards her, she just smashed my eye out and punched me when I least expected it. I was sitting down and there was no threat to her when she struck me. At the time I didn’t realise how bad it was but my eye was bleeding and nobody even stopped the cameras or helped,” Christall added.
Although MNet confirmed that season 3 of the show would be discontinued “due to unforeseen circumstances experienced during the production of the show”, Christall says that she believes that they stopped the show because of the incident and because other cast members were scared of Gugu.
“The producers didn’t say that they were going to air the incident or not but I think because they wanted to be ethical, they couldn’t continue to put someone being harmed in that way on television. Everyone was also scared of her (Gugu), we couldn’t work with her and she’d have to be fired. It was just going to be a nightmare for everyone involved,” Christall continues.
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The musician and aspiring actress also expressed how sad she was over the show coming to an end.
“It’s really heartbreaking for a lot of us because we are all part of the show and it’s a big part of our lives and our careers. It’s really sad that this was the outcome because The Real Housewives of Johannesburg was really popular. Let’s hope that we get another shot at the cherry and that the show continues, without intruders,” she concluded.
Speaking to TRUELOVE, Khathi confirmed that she had also opened a case of assault against Christall and refused to comment further.
“I’m not allowed to speak about this because I’ve pressed charges so once everything’s been clear on the legal side then I can speak. But I have pressed charges,” she said.
The show’s producer, Sonia Mbele also refused to comment.
“We are not at liberty to talk about this until further notice,” she said.
