Babes Wodumo made me do it, Mampintsha says

Kwaito star Mandla "Mampintsha" Maphumulo admitted to assaulting his girlfriend Babes Wodumo but claimed that it was all in self-defence.

Mampintsha, who was also planning on laying counter assault charges yesterday, claimed a drunk Babes would often provoke him and attack him and their drivers as she got into violent fits

Moments after he was released on R2,000 bail after being charged with the assault of Bongekile "Babes Wodumo" Simelane, Mampintsha told journalists outside the Pinetown magistrate's court yesterday that he had opened a counter case of assault against the gqom singer.

However, national police spokesperson Brigadier Vish Naidoo denied that Mampintsha had opened a case.

His lawyer Pat Magwaza later clarified the issue. "We were at Westville police station to open a case of assault and check if my client had a case against him when police from a provincial task team came and interrupted the process."

Magwaza said that he and his client would complete the process of lodging a case against Babes "in the next hour".

Mampintsha also made some explosive allegations about Babes, saying that she had attacked him in the past and tended to be violent when drunk.

"I have been very patient with the abuse too and I have realised that this love is no longer stable. If Babes would stop drinking alcohol, she will be alright because what she did was as a result of her being under the influence of alcohol.

"Not so long ago she beat me with a crutch to a point where I called her family. When her family arrived, she continued hitting me in front of them.

"She once came back to the house drunk and she beat me up until I burst my upper lip. She came home after midnight, drunk and she hit me with a hard Gucci flip flop...

"I have witnesses that were in the house that can confirm that she has assaulted [me] because I have been limping for some time now and each time she comes back drunk, I have to call the family while I avoid being hit with my crutch. her dancers and her family know this.

"Babes is very provocative and she knows that I will get angry at the end of the day. I hit her twice on her back, not on her face. I was asleep when she arrived back home and I was sober. At times she beats up our drivers, she is violent and also fights a lot.

"So when she comes to me and starts being violent, what must I do?

"I can't allow Babes to keep hitting me because when I inform her parents, they can't even assist.

"When she comes back home drunk I usually leave the house. When I attempt to leave, she pulls me back and fights with the cab drivers because I cannot drive under this state [with the moon boot].

"I have [previously] dated many people and I have never laid a hand on them. Why is it now that I am dating Babes, I am accused of being violent?"

Mampintsha turned himself in earlier in the day after a video of him slapping Babes several times was recorded live on her Instagram page in the early hours of Monday morning.

He denied that he had been hiding from the police in the wake of the case being opened - this despite comments from police earlier in the day that they were still looking for him.

"I did not run from the police. I was at a hotel. After the incident I went to the hotel and slept. It was at 4.30am today when I realised that I was in the news and people were saying all these bad things about me," he told journalists.

During his brief court appearance, Mampintsha wore a moon boot, which is associated with a broken, fractured or otherwise injured leg.

When asked why he was wearing it Mampintsha said it was an "old injury", however he was still limping.

In an unopposed bail application he was ordered to make no contact with Babes.

Earlier in the day, the spokesperson for Babes's family, Sakhile Langa, said the singer was "very emotional but stable" and was receiving psychological treatment at home.