Kancube pushed out of Act Now by Lerole, Tabane
Star resigns after donor told of women abuse
Internationally acclaimed actor Sello Maake Kancube has resigned from a popular anti-gender-based violence organisation after its director and musician Tebogo Lerole and media personality JJ Tabane accused him of women abuse.
Kancube stepped down as spokesperson for Act Now after learning that Lerole and Tabane told businesswoman Khumo Moetse, who wanted to donate funds to the star-studded organisation, that they were planning to kick the actor to the kerb because he was a woman abuser.
Speaking to Sunday World, the former Generations actor confirmed that he quit the organisation last week because the two connived with his former girlfriend to badmouth him to the donor. Kancube said Tabane and Lerole had met Moetse in Joburg recently to advise her not to donate funds into the organisation unless the thespian resigned from his position.
Kancube said he was aware that Tabane and Lerole got the information from his former lover, whom he admittedly beat up in what he called an “interrelationship violence” in 2002 after she, among others, allegedly tried to force him to have sex and even tore his clothes to shreds. He said after their fight, they forgave each other and moved on with their lives.
“After the fight, I asked her to go to the police and get me arrested for what I had done to her. But she said she had forgiven me, basically we forgave each other and moved on with our lives. This is something that I’m not proud of and still haunts me even today, and I wish I could have handled the situation differently,” he said. Kancube said he went to rehab to deal with his anger and had not laid his hand on any woman since then. “It hurts me that these people are now using my past to undermine my efforts to fight gender-based violence in this country. “I challenge any woman to come out now and say I had abused her since then,” he said.
Lerole confirmed that he was invited to a meeting where he met Tabane and Moetse but denied that he bad mouthed the actor. “I swear I had nothing negative to say about him because to me he was formidable force in the organisation and I hold him in high regards,” he said.
Tabane said he had indeed advised Moetse that Kancube’s participation in the organisation undermined its reputation. “He is a crook. He is just looking for attention, I’m not the one who wants to undermine his reputation, he is the one who tattered it.
“Why should we allow him to be an ambassador with such a reputation?” asked Tabane. Moetse confirmed that Tabane told her in their meeting with Lerole that Kancube was a woman abuser and discouraged her from funding Act Now with the actor as spokesperson. “Tebogo then responded by saying that Sello had gone to rehab,” she said. She also confirmed that she told Kancube about the allegation.
Kancube’s former girlfriend denied badmouthing him.