I'm sorry, says Mandoza
2008-12-11 12:01
Cape Town - Mandoza is sorry about the car accident that killed two men (Charles Shabalala, 39 and Felix Thebe, 38) in March 2008.
"I'm not the bad boy the media has made me out to be," he told News24 earlier this week. "There are people who hold old things against you and I've stopped being a party animal."
He added that the case had affected him deeply.
"It's been a long eight months. There were too many questions that I've answered again and again, but now it's over.
"I don't owe the media any explanation and the rest of this thing we'll deal with privately - between the family and me, you know," he adds.
Wasn't drunk
He insists that he wasn't drunk, despite eyewitness accounts. Police though, were not able to draw a blood sample to test for alcohol as he was on a drip by the time they arrived.
Look, I wasn't drunk - people will always talk, but I don't worry about them. People sell papers through my name and they want to destroy me because of my celebrity status," he added.
He isn't sure about whether the experience will feature in the next hit, and would like to spend time dealing with the feelings of the families involved.
"I can't predict anything, but it will depend on how I feel. I want to make the family happy because they are still grieving."
Mandoza, whose real name is Mduduzi Tshabalala, was sentenced to a 48-month jail sentence, suspended for five years.
He also has to pay the men's families R10 000 for funeral expenses, as well as R3 500 a month to Shabalala's wife Gloria and their two children and R1 500 to Thebe's mother Margaret.
