Television presenter Kamohelo Bombe’s social media rant in which she accused a Joburg businessman of scamming her in their mobile kitchen deal has landed her in trouble.
Midi Khorombi, who owns In A Box Holding, which is trading as Container Designz and Mobile Kitchen SA, has filed a lawsuit against Bombe at the Joburg High Court in which he is demanding R500 000 from her for soiling his and his business’s name.
Khorombi is also demanding that Bombe retract, apologise and delete her defamatory statements.
However, Bombe insisted that Khorombi is a scammer and said she would oppose the application. “That man will be arrested soon. I have opened a criminal case.”
In the papers, which we have seen, Khorombi said Bombe paid him R26 000 on March 29 to build a 2.4m mobile kitchen trailer for her. Khorombi and Bombe, a poultry farmer, agreed that the trailer would be delivered in 12 weeks from the date of the agreement, excluding public holidays.
He said after completing the trailer on April 5, he sent her a WhatsApp message and notified her that it was ready for collection.
Khorombi said Bombe, the former SABC1 Shift presenter, told him that she was unable to collect the trailer as she was waiting for her external branding team to brand it first.
He said he kept the trailer at his workshop until his landlord shut it down because of a legal battle.
He said on April 28, his attorney wrote to Bombe, who presented the Traditional Wedding show on Moja Love, and informed her that his landlord had denied him access to the workshop.
He said in a bid to get the landlord to release the trailer, Bombe deposed an affidavit stating that it belonged to her and asked the landlord to give it to her. He said he also told Bombe that if the landlord granted him access to the workshop, he would collect the trailer and deliver it to her, and promised to refund her the full amount if he didn’t succeed.
He said when the landlord eventually granted him access to the workshop, he told Bombe to come collect the trailer but she refused. This, he said, was even though he was still within the 12-week delivery period as agreed. He said on May 29, Bombe threatened to expose him and his business on social media, despite his plea to resolve their differences amicably.
On June 17, he said, Bombe intentionally, wrongfully and unlawfully published defamatory statements against him. Khorombi said his lawyer wrote to Bombe on June 20 and ordered her to delete the posts but she refused and instead accused them of representing a scammer. She allegedly even hurled insults at them.
“I found it inappropriate to subject the presiding officers to the explicit and offensive insults used in the aforesaid e-mail.”
Khorombi said Bombe’s statements were a false assertion that he was a “dishonest man” and a “scammer”. The statements, he said, were designed to inflict harm to his name and to cause financial loss and reputational damage to his business.
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