Michelly Rall / MTV Africa Music Awards / AFP-Services
South African police said they had arrested and charged a musician on Tuesday after his pop-star lover Babes Wodumo broadcast live images on Instagram of him allegedly assaulting her.
After a public outcry, Mandla Maphumulo handed himself to the police in the Pinetown, a town on the outskirt of the southeastern city of Durban.
Maphumulo, whose stage name is “Mampintsha,” was charged with assault and taken to a magistrate’s court where he was granted 2,000 rand ($140) bail and ordered to return on May 15, police spokesman Vishnu Naidoo told AFP.
After his court appearance, Maphumulo told journalists that he was sorry for hitting Wodumo.
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But, he said, he had been acting in self-defence after she first assaulted him.
He said he had filed a counter-charge of assault against her.
“I have been enduring violence from her,” he said to reporters according to a clip on eNCA news channel.
The 24-year-old Wodumo, whose real name is Bongekile Simelane, is a celebrated performer of gqom music which blends traditional African sounds with house music.
Maphumolo is a kwaito musician — a South African genre that bears similarity to hip-hop.
South Africa has among the highest rates of gender-based violence globally and the 38-second clip sparked a backlash from authorities, politicians and on social media.
The clip was subsequently deleted from her Instagram profile.
