The family of late kwaito singer Nomasonto “Mshoza” Maswanganyi is accusing her ex-husband, Jacob Mnisi, of denying them access to see her children. The family has also alleged that Mnisi, a prominent Mpumalanga businessman, snubbed the funeral of the popular songbird, who died of Covid-19 complications in 2020.
Mshoza and Mnisi, who tied the knot in 2007, divorced in 2011 after accusations and counter accusations of cheating by both parties.
The songstress then entered into her second marriage with a KwaZulu-Natal construction tycoon in 2017 but dumped him in 2018 after accusing him of beating her up.
She then walked down the aisle with East Rand businessman Prince Dlamini in April 2020 but their union ended a month later. After the end of their brief nuptial, Mshoza started a relationship with Nigerian musician Oluwa Kuwait. She fell ill and died in November that year, leaving behind her two children from Mnisi.
Speaking to Sunday World on Wednesday, Mshoza’s sister, Thandi Maswanganyi, said a month after Mshoza’s funeral, Mnisi sent his mother and brother to her house in Brakpan to fetch the children because she was unemployed and struggled to make ends meet. She said after taking the children, Mnisi’s mother also wanted to take Mshoza’s furniture from the singer’s house but she prevented her from doing so.
“I told her that she had no right to take Sonto’s furniture because she bought it after she divorced Mnisi. I could see that she was not happy with me after that and I think that’s what caused the fallout between us,” she said.
Thandi said after taking the children, aged 11 and 13, Mnisi farmed them out to relatives who live in Matsulu, outside Nelspruit in Mpumalanga. She said he later took them to Metropolitan boarding school in Witbank where they are staying.
She said she asked Mnisi to allow the children to visit them during school holidays in June and December, and he had agreed. To her chagrin, Mnisi has refused to bring the children to them and has instead sent them to one of his farms. That’s where they spent their school holidays with his son from a previous relationship.
“The kids are not reachable because they don’t have cellphones. When we phoned his son to give us the address of the farm, he ignored us and even refused to send us location.
“This has been going on since he took the kids from us. We have not seen my sister’s children since 2020.”
Mnisi confirmed that he had denied them access because they phoned the children when they were at school and poisoned them against him.
“They phoned them and told them nonsense about me. I pay school and buy food for these children, and I don’t owe the school a cent but they phoned my kids and tell them a lot of nonsense about me ,” he said.
He said he would allow them access to see the children if they stopped with their shenanigans.
“They must ask me for the address of the farm so they can go there and spend time with them,” he said.
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