According to a 2013 report by the SA Institute of Race Relations, only 36% of SA children have their fathers living with them, and unfortunately, the statistics don’t seem to be getting any better.
Singer Simphiwe Dana, in 2021, coined the term “deadbitism” to refer to the heartbreaking but steadily growing trend of absentee fathers in Mzansi. She led an online discussion on the phenomenon, as many grappled to understand what circumstances lead a man to abandoning his offspring like they don’t exist.
But celebrities are not immune from the epidemic either, and these ZAlebs have at one point been deadbeat fathers (or accused of it).
Jub Jub
Rapper and media personality Jub Jub had to start this list because of how complicated his case is. He has a son with Empini hitmaker Kelly Khumalo, and it’s pretty clear that he is not in the boy, Christian’s life. During the first few years of the child’s life, Jub Jub was in prison, so they missed the chance to build that vital initial bond.
Since he has been out of jail, he and Kelly have not been seeing eye to eye, and passive aggressive jabs are constantly flying left and right. The rapper has accused Kelly of denying him a relationship with his son.
In 2020, she revealed on her reality show, Life With Kelly Khumalo, that she would try to mend fences and allow the two to have a relationship. But as of 2021, Jub Jub was still badmouthing her and accusing her of the same thing, and he even got the boy’s birthday wrong on social media. Kelly tries to keep her kids away from public scrutiny, but something tells us that Jub Jub still doesn’t have a relationship with Christian.
Being an absent father is wrong, but it looks even worse when the child has a disability, and music producer Heavy K found himself in the middle of a nasty battle with his ex-wife Ntombi for allegedly doing just that. She accused Heavy K of being a toxic father, and said that he had not been caring for their 6-year old son living with a disability.
After ignoring the allegations for a while, Heavy K responded by sharing a picture of two of his kids on social media, celebrating the youngest one’s first birthday. While he did not directly refute what Ntombi said about him, his post seemed to have been targeted at those who thought of him as a deadbeat after Ntombi’s rant. We’ll let you decide for yourself whether that means he is now present in their lives.
Prince Kaybee and his long-term girlfriend Zola ZeeLovin welcomed their first son together in October 2021. But this is not the DJ’s first child, as he has another son from a past relationship.
The news came to light in 2018 when Kaybee’s baby mama came forward to accuse him of not paying child support, as reported by The South African. The lady’s identity was not revealed, but she is reported to be from Limpopo. She said Prince never made time to see her since she had the baby, who was allegedly born in 2017.
Prince finally took responsibility for his son a few months after the saga went public. He said that he and the baby mama had worked it out so they could co parent their son peacefully. He also said he would be paying papgeld responsibly, as he endeavoured to be the Best Male, not just in his music, but in his life in general.
Although he hasn’t shared anything about the son and baby mama since, it is his prerogative, and we would like to believe that he lived up to his word to step up and be more present in his son’s life.
Dj Junior De Rocka’s 2020 started on a sour note when his baby mama Ntando Duma went on a Twitter rant, exposing the DJ for being an absent father. She said that all she ever wanted from him was his presence in his daughter's life, his love nor his money. But he could not give her even that, and she was mad that he had disappointed his daughter.
Luckily for everyone involved, this story has a happy ending. Ntando and Junior were able to work out their issues, and have since made peace. They are co parenting their beautiful little girl, Sbahle Mzizi, and she is turning out to be a sweet, smart and considerate girl.
News anchor and sports personality Walter Mokoena is the baby daddy of Pearl Thusi’s daughter Thandolwethu Mokoena. The actress was with him when she was pretty young, but they haven’t been seen together much since their relationship ended.
In an interview with Anele Mdoda, Pearl talked about their difficult relationship. She said she endured a lot of pain and tears during her pregnancy, and their relationship only made it worse. She however could not give further details, as she said the news anchor had issued her with warnings against talking about him.
Even so, considering there is little to no proof of his presence in Thando’s life, the information Pearl gave was enough to deduce that Walter has not been a present father to his daughter.
We have to applaud every woman on this list. Raising kids is tough, and they have had to do it all on their own, and most of the time in the full glare of fans and haters. They are iron women and we celebrate them unreservedly.
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