Somhale divorce: Somizi seeks marriage advice from Lerato Sengadi

Somgaga aka Somizi sought advice from late legendary rapper HHP’s wife Lerato Sengadi on the latest episode of his reality series which aired on Wednesday 15 June.

Somizi Mhlongo spoke to his friend Lerato Sengadi, who was the wife of HHP before he passed away on 24 October 2018. The similarity between the pair is that Lerato was also married customarily but Somizi and Mohale were a same-sex marriage so some things may be different.

“Lerato was married customarily, I was also married customarily, but the benefits and results are not the same. For me I’m meeting up to ask her… actually, we thought we live in a democratic whatever – no we’re not, we don’t,” he explained.

“She seems to have more rights than I would have because same-sex marriages, so it is intriguing,” he continued.

Lerato explained that she and HHP did whatever they needed to do traditionally to form their union but they did not sign.

“For me it was the other way around where we did the full, you know the things that check off in the law to what makes a marriage customarily recognized, kind of thing, we did. Even if it was the bare minimum we did what we needed to get done,” she said.

“But we didn’t go sign because of the people that we are firstly, because we always favour African way of life before everything else. When Jabu passed away they just said I don’t exist. Like he was never married, the process wasn’t finished,” she continued.

Lerato revealed that HHP’s family did come and pay lobola but his family did not recognize her as the wife after his death.

“I said what do you mean you don’t recognise me as his wife. Me and Jabu had been together for 10 years. I was your daughter-in-law up until, what? Like the 24th of October? Why didn’t you say these things when he was alive? Why did you wait for me to get to my weakest moment to try and break me further?”

Somizi weighed in with his own experiences say that Mohale has requested half his estate in the divorce.

“I’ve been on this journey with Lerato through out and it hasn’t been easy. It’s been tough. Emotionally, mentally, financially draining to see that she finally won is a victory for a lot of people… because there are so many people who are going through the same thing that she went through,” he said.

“In my situation my ex husband has sent a letter asking for half of everything, right? So, I don’t know if you know that I didn’t sign anything but they are standpoints that we got married customarily. We didn’t do the lobola thing, at all,” he continued.

Somizi explained that they got there and just had a party. He went on to say that they only went to Mohale’s side they did not come to his side of the family. The Idols SA judge went on to say that the situation disadvantages Mohale, which he should be happy about but it doesn’t sit right with him.