Molemo Katleho “Jub Jub” Maarohanye was the last celebrity to be featured on Showmax’s Unfollowed. In the finale of the show’s first season, host Thembekile Mrototo speaks to the television star whose reputation has badly suffered this year through backlash on social media.
The most recent online backlash Jub Jub has suffered stems from multiple rape cases involving well-known personalities.
A decade ago Jub Jub, at the time a bestselling musician, was jailed after he crashed into a group of children of which four were killed while drag racing in Soweto with a friend in 2010.
Mrototo asked the former child star how he managed to come back into the limelight after his infamous car incident but Maarohanye said it was not easy for him to comment on the incident “out of respect for the families that lost their kids”.
“Everything was taken away in the blink of an eye following the accident,” he said.
Jub Jub however admitted he wished he had made better choices at the time.
“The accident lingers as my darkest day. A good part of me died as well. When you find yourself alone, you just remember, you try to sleep, you see visions. You try to move on with your life [but then] you are reminded.”
Jub Jub claims that his time in prison made him a better person.
“Prison is the only place that actually forced me to be alone, to reconnect with God, amadlozi (ancestors). Because of the life that I was living, man, I had no time for what my ancestors wanted me to do. I had no time for God. I regret all my actions, the accident but I don’t regret going into prison because that’s where I learnt life lessons that I learned.”
Jub Jub considers his misogynistic banter on MacGyver “MacG” Mukwevho’s podcast in December 2021 “very pure, very light”, and speculates about what drives people to participate in cancel culture.
The rapper and TV presenter is currently out on bail, facing three counts of rape, two counts of attempted murder, and one count of assault, brought by four different accusers. High-profile women including Amanda du-Pont, Kelly Khumalo and Masechaba Khumalo (then Ndlovu) and Jub Jub’s cousin, went public online with accusations of violent sexual misconduct.
“We live in a society where rape is a pandemic, and it is sad how now guys are not scared of guns, not scared of knives, but we’re scared of just waking up being accused, you know? Right now we’re just shielding from every woman,” Jub Jub said on Unfollowed.
Mrototo dug down into Jub Jub’s views, demanding clarity on who, exactly, is the justice system failing, and why he is choosing to focus on a minority of falsely accused men.
“If you know that somebody was raped, if somebody has raped my family member, I’m telling you now, I would not wait for the justice system. I know what I would do,” the rapper said defiantly.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa.
