We’re not gonna lie; celebrity lawsuits can be very entertaining, and you would be a pretender if you said they are not fun to follow. From royalty disputes, to abuse allegations that get overturned, to defamation cases arising from silly beefs, we love to see them battle it out in court – much better than street fighting, right?
It is especially satisfying when our faves win lawsuits that we felt were trivial anyway; it feels like we are right there winning with them.
These are some ZAlebs who have won lawsuits against brands, companies, overzealous fans, or their fellow celebrities.
Tshego Ketshabile
Rapper Tshego Ketshabile, in 2020, took an unnamed record label to court over unpaid royalties. He complained that his hit songs like Garden, Tell Em Say, Garden and Henessey were being played everywhere in the country, but he wasn’t receiving an equivalent sum of money from all that airplay.
He protected the label by keeping the name under wraps, even though many speculated that he was talking about Cassper Nyovest’s label, Family Tree Records. But the label’s identity didn’t seem to matter so much in the end, as Tshego won the case, and was to have the label run him his money in due course.
While he hasn’t categorically come out to confirm that his money has reached him, he has not complained either, so we can safely assume that it was all settled and Tshego is rolling in cash right now.
Media personality Bonang Matheba had a very long, very public battle with YouTuber Rea Gopane. It all started when Rea alleged, on his channel, that Bonang had introduced her ex-boyfriend AKA to drugs while they were a couple.
As you can imagine, Queen B did not take kindly to such damaging allegations. Additionally, Rea made it worse by repeatedly going trolling her online, repeatedly saying she is not as smart as she thinks she is.
Well, Bonang showed him just how smart she is by suing him and winning. She went online to announce that Rea would owe her R300,000 in damages, which she expects him to pay out over the next 30 years because he is just a broke kid. Talk about a clapback!
After Black Coffee’s marriage to his ex-wife Enhle Mbali, everything came crashing down. The DJ found himself accused of physical assault over the duration of the marriage.
Enhle laid it all bare in a video she posted on Instagram, where she said she was upset that she had not been given a protection order, and accused Black Coffee, not only of physical assault, but also of psychologically manipulating their kids against her.
But Black Coffee stood his ground amidst the allegations, and eventually won the case. It was dicey as we can never take Gender Based Violence as a light matter, but he maintained that he had never and would never assault Enhle. The courts ruled in his favour, and that was that.
In the first instance, the singer CiCi accused him of physical assault. She claimed that he had dragged her through the street in 2017, and that it was so bad that she had to have hip surgery. She said he got violent when she tried to break up with him, taking her phone and getting into his car. As she tried to retrieve her phone, she grabbed the car door and he drove off with her holding on, dragging her for about 300m.
He was found not guilty, and CiCi was considered the aggressor since she willingly held onto the door.
The two have since been in court again with Arthur suing CiCi for royalties this time, and we are all grateful that they broke free of each other because that relationship clearly had some serious issues.
In September 2014, songbird Kelly Khumalo had assault charges against her dropped by the court. She and her sister Zandi Khumalo had been charged with assault by Mandisa, the late Senzo Meyiwa’s estranged wife, after they allegedly damaged the side mirror of her BMW.
Kelly and Mandisa did not have the best relationship, as we would expect, seeing as the Empini hitmaker had an affair with Mandisa’s husband. It is unclear when the two of them came into contact for Kelly to allegedly assault Mandisa.
She had nothing but gratitude when the case was dropped, and she said there was no case to begin with, and she was happy for the opportunity to focus on her career. But it seems that the ghost of Senzo refuses to let her be, as it was recently reported that she was allegedly to be charged with obstruction of justice in his murder case.
Multi-award winning musician, Sjava, was accused of rape by his ex-girlfriend Lady Zamar. She filed a case against him, which was forwarded to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). At the time, he swore he had not done it, but it was a tricky matter which divided their fans in two as they did not know whom to believe.
Needless to say, the whole incident has greatly affected both of their public image, especially that of Lady Zamar. Mzansi has been holding a grudge against her as she is considered a liar. But she is set to make a comeback to the music industry after a long hiatus, and we can only wait and see how she is received.
It’s great that these ZAlebs got their second chance in the face of tremendous odds, and that although the legal system may have its flaws, it came through for them when they needed it the most, allowing them to rebuild their public image.
