‘I am not above the law’: Somizi speaks out after criminal charges opened
Entertainer Somizi Mhlongo has vowed to accept the legal implications of what he called a “very bad joke”, as the fallout over his lockdown extension comments continued.
On Thursday night, just before President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the national lockdown would be extended by two weeks, Somizi revealed that very same piece of information.
The comment came on Metro FM co-host Dineo Ranaka’s Instagram Live video saying that “Fikile” told him, in reference to transport minister Fikile Mbalula. The video was filmed while their show was on the air.
The minister has since opened a criminal case against Somizi for spreading fake news, in line with the Disaster Management Act and lockdown regulations — and Mhlongo has apologised for his comment.
Taking to Instagram on Friday afternoon, Somizi again said sorry, and said that he was willing to deal with whatever came next.
“This is difficult,” he started out. “I’m not OK, but I’ll be OK.”
Later in the video he said: “Whatever legal matters or steps have been taken, I am a citizen and I’m not above the law. If I’ve gone wrong, I will respect whatever judgment or whatever verdict comes out of it. If I didn’t do wrong, because it was not intentional, it was a very bad joke, I was not even aware it was being recorded … whatever it is I need to face, I will face it, because I am not above the law.”
The entertainer added that it was a pity that Ranaka’s video was cut off when it was.
“Unfortunately the part that everyone didn’t see is when I said to her, ‘Ag, I was joking. I mean I don’t even know if there’s going to be an extension. No-one knows.’
“But the timing was bad. The timing was horrible. Because it happened exactly like I said it, which I can also question that maybe I have the gift of seeing things because they happened. But at this point I really, really made a bad joke.
“I never spoke to Fikile about anything regarding that. I never spoke to Fikile at all this week,” said Somizi.
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