Sonia Mbele Denies Tax Evasion Charges

Actress/TV producer Sonia Mbele has flat out denied that she is guilty of tax evasion.

Mbele and her former business partners, Yolisa Gqunta and Rebone Sesing – who established a production company, Real Housewives of South Africa (Rhosa), which produced the reality show of the same name – were charged with 42 counts of alleged tax evasion by the National Prosecution Authority (NPA).

These include not filing the company’s income tax from 2019-22, not filing value-added tax returns from 2020-22, and not filing pay-as-you-earn from 2020-22.

However, Mbele – who failed to appear alongside her former Rhosa partners at Johannesburg magistrate’s court on Wednesday, 27 September – has categorically denied her involvement.

According to spokesperson Thato Malindi, her client left Rhosa in 2019, the same year in which the company was supposed to shut down.

“Now she is forced to attend these proceedings without any knowledge of any company still being operational,” Malindi explained via a statement released on Thursday, 28 September.

“She said that she made her own arrangements to settle her own portion of the tax amounts owed. She wasn’t in contempt of court due to the assessment made. Sonia also submitted a doctor’s note to the NPA [booking her off until Tuesday, 3 October] and it was taken into record.”

However, Mbele, Gqunta and Sesing are scheduled to appear in court on Thursday, 5 October.

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