The Sunday News
Peter Matika, Senior Life Reporter
THEY say birds of a feather flock together . . .
This is the case for Big Nuz member Mandla Maphumulo popularly known as Mampintsha and Bongekile Simelane aka Babes Wodumo, the self-proclaimed queen of music, who ironically have a phobia of being miles away from land in the sky.
Mampintsha, who is a member of the award-winning kwaito group, Big Nuz, is known to have a fear of flying, while his boo, Babes on the other hand is reported to have similar challenges.
In the face of Babes Wodumo’s chivalrous Instagram apology to Zimbabwe for her missed appearance at last year’s edition of the Kalawa Homecoming shindig, which would have been her maiden appearance in the City of Kings, fans still feel short-changed and are demanding to know how she and her boo Mampintsha missed their flight to Zimbabwe . . . if at all they did miss it.
In her apology statement, she wrote: “To our fellow Zimbabweans please accept an apology from Babes Wodumo and Big Nuz from the bottom of our hearts. We both couldn’t make it because of the previous gigs that we had, which subsequently led us to missing our flight from East London. We are trying to organise another date to come and perform in Zimbabwe for you. We love you very much, may God bless you all.”
Both Babes Wodumo and Mampintsha have been very open about their fear of airplanes and could have likely preferred to skip the Kalawa show to harbour their fears.
A source told the Mzansi Mirror that Babes preferred gigs she was able to drive to than flying from East London to Durban.
“She suffers from the same phobia as her boss. It can’t be good for her since she’s not making it to most of the gigs. She’s young and her music is loved across Mzansi. She must deal with her fear of flying to make more money. Music is one game that needs one to make as much money as possible.”
Another source claimed: “At some point she had two gigs in Durban and one in Jozi. She had to drive back and forth to cover those gigs. Accidents happen. It’ll be good for her to just get used to the aeroplane to avoid unnecessary accidents.”
Now the question is did they really miss their flight or they succumbed to the pressures of their phobia?
On another note Babes Wodumo has also somewhat found herself on the wrong side of . . . well practically everyone, judging from one of her festive performances, where she literally performed like a Zombie at the Buyel’Ekhaya Music Festival held in East London, South Africa.
The ‘‘lifeless’’ Babes Wodumo performance everybody is talking about is a video of Babes performing at the Buyel’Ekhaya Music Festival which has since gone viral, and boy did it get people angry!
Despite the fact that Babes has said she was threatened with her life prior to the performance and forced on stage by a security team, organisers have blasted Babes, insisting she was late and refused to perform.
@peterkmatika
