A real-life drama has spilt over into a public war in the lead-up to the launch of a reality TV show about a prominent South African musical family.
The Makhenes debuts tonight on Mzansi Magic amid allegations of financial exploitation, substance abuse and infidelity.
The show stars singer and actress Letoya Makhene and also features:
- her father, legendary musician, producer and anti-apartheid activist Blondie Makhene;
- the family matriarch, Gogo Lily;
- Letoya’s sisters Pauline and Gontse, who is battling addiction and is in recovery;
- her firstborn, Nubia Mangezi; and
- her second-born, Tadiwa Mangezi jnr.
Not included in the show is Blondie’s brother Andrew, who lives with his mother, Gogo Lily, in her home in Soweto. He told the Sunday Times this week that after Letoya also moved into the house, he witnessed knife fights, different men living in the house with her, and his nephew begging for sugar from their neighbours.
But Letoya told the Sunday Times her uncle was “on a smear campaign” and that the show would vindicate her.
Andrew says he first witnessed the family friction three years ago when he moved back into his 103-year-old mother’s four-roomed house, which has three back rooms. He said he was immediately met with hostility from Blondie and his daughters, who he claims have been trying to kick him out of the house.
Strange things would happen. I would see there’s a lack of food, and my nephew doesn’t have slippers. The boyfriends they brought in ... I think they need therapy. These people are sick. The whole family needs that
— Andrew Makhene
“They are giving the public the impression that I am after the house. But I’m here to sort myself out and move out. I’m not here to fight over the house,” he said.
“I’m a songwriter and producer who earns royalties. Royalties fluctuate. Right now I’m trying to rebuild. Misfortunes happen in life, but because this is my home, you go back and pick up the pieces. It does not give them the right to say, ‘Get out.’”
Andrew said Blondie moved out of the house before he moved in, but things escalated when Letoya came to live with them.
“She [Letoya] is a drug addict and an alcoholic. If she was a man, I would say she is a womaniser ... It was parties on parties on parties till 2, 3am. Her father [Blondie] and [the] daughters are weedheads. [The] women smoke, drink and do it all.
“Strange things would happen. I would see there’s a lack of food, and my nephew doesn’t have slippers. The boyfriends they brought in ... I think they need therapy. These people are sick. The whole family needs that.”
Andrew said he had confronted Letoya about having different men visiting. During one confrontation she poured a bottle of water over him, so he responded by pouring a bucket of ”black” mopping-up water over her. This led to her getting a protection order against him. He countered by getting one against her, which the Sunday Times has seen.
“In her protection order it says I had a hammer and an axe to chop her. She claims I twisted her wrist, which is not true.”
Andrew was later detained at Jabulani police station in Soweto for allegedly violating the protection order by intimidating her.
“I was in jail for the weekend for something I didn’t do,” he said.
Andrew claimed Letoya’s six-month-old baby was conceived on the floor of a shack in Tladi, Soweto. “That shack stinks, and there’s a lot of muthi around them. Dirty blankets and rats.”
He said that when they started filming the show, Letoya moved out of his mother’s home, and when filming wrapped up, she took back the phone and clothes she had bought him.
“Letoya got paid R250,000 from the reality show in October 2025, and by January all that money was finished. They switch off her lights sometimes,” he said.
Responding to her uncle’s claims, Letoya told the Sunday Times that he was trying to get his mother to sign over the house to him.
“You will be the judge of whether you think I’m a drug addict or down or not. I’m so tired; I’m just trying to live in my happiest place. I’m just trying to be at peace with myself and my life. All this negativity is so draining.
— Letoya Makhene
“You’ll be able to hear my grandmother talk her truth about how abusive he has been towards her; it’s no longer going to be hearsay,” she said.
“After 20 years of not showing up or wondering how she is, he shows up and now calls himself the man of the house. Thank God my grandmother is so woke, because he kept bringing fraudulent papers for her to sign, and this woman keeps saying she’s not going to sign.”
While admitting she had moved into the house after falling on hard times, Letoya said she has since moved out and is healthy and happy.
“The show was my reality TV show, which I turned into a family reality show,” she said. “You will be the judge of whether you think I’m a drug addict or down or not. I’m so tired; I’m just trying to live in my happiest place. I’m just trying to be at peace with myself and my life. All this negativity is so draining.
“Yes, I was down and out. I returned home proudly. When I ran away from my marital home, I went home. No-one will judge me.”
Addressing allegations about her relationship with the father of her newborn baby, she said: “I am not ashamed about beautiful moments I’ve had in my life. I’ve also signed a contract and cannot answer these questions.
“But I’m not cruel in that way. I don’t give and take back. If I’ve decided we are no longer together, take everything. I don’t break up with people and make them bitter.”
Blondie, responding to the claims said his brother is mentally ill.
“I built the houses at the back, not for myself but for the sake of my children who could possibly use the houses. It’s my mother’s house.
“I built it as a halfway house for all of us. Because I also lost a marriage and needed a place to lay my head and I went back home. I rose up from all of that and now I stay at a different place that I rent. I still have big hopes to own a big house.”
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