Unwed mother accuses minister’s stepson of neglect
DEFAULTING on child maintenance payments, alcohol abuse, infidelity and irresponsible behaviour.
These are accusations against Leepile Molewa, 27year-old stepson of Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa.
Lindsay Tshoshane, 26, claims that after years in a relationship with Molewa, she and her two-year-old son have been left in the lurch by his family, who allegedly have not contributed to the upbringing of the child, either emotionally, physically or financially.
Asked to comment on these allegations, Minister Molewa’s spokesman, Mandla Mathebula, said: “Mr Leepile Molewa is the son of Richard Molewa and his former wife, Sylvia Molewa, meaning these are the two parents of Leepile you have to enquire from. As you are aware, Mr Richard Molewa is the husband of Minister Edna Molewa.
“Leepile does not stay with the minister and her husband, and the minister is not responsible in the upbringing of Leepile or any matter that you have enquired about.
“The minister does not even know the woman called Lindsay, who you are enquiring about. It therefore goes without saying that your enquiry would probably be best responded to by Leepile and Sylvia Molewa.”
Says Tshoshane: “We were together from 2008; we met while I was in university. We lived together and I fell pregnant in late 2009. That year, I started receiving text messages from mutual friends or people who knew we were dating… I was oblivious to him running around.
“The ultimate was in December 2009. He hadn’t come home the whole weekend. I remember getting a call from the police to say I should fetch him from the Randburg police station after he was arrested.
“I was panicking and heavily pregnant, but I drove to the station. Police told me they had got a tip-off from the neighbours about activities in the house he was in, and had found him in bed with a girl. (They also found) stolen property.”
Tshoshane says she spent 11 days going to and from her parental home in Soshanguve, near Pretoria, to Randburg to bring Leepile clean underwear and food.
After Leepile was released and charges of being associated with the perpetrators of theft were dropped, Tshoshane says she forgave Molewa for his misdemeanours.
“I gave birth on February 3, 2010 and was alone after my mother left to return to work overseas. I lost my car and had to drop out of school to raise the baby and save financially.” But things got worse for the young couple. In April 2010, the company Leepile had started working for got wind of his arrest in December.
“We broke up after a big argument. His parents accused me of telling his bosses that he had been in jail, when in fact I had been the one who had backed up his story to his bosses. After he got fired, he told my mother he couldn’t financially support our son, yet every other weekend I would hear he was partying in clubs in Joburg and buying R30 000 worth of alcohol,” Tshoshane said.
“I tried to go to the maintenance court in Soshanguve but there is no one to help. I have tried being civil with him but it doesn’t work either. I am just asking for financial support. I didn’t make this child alone; both of us were involved…”
Leepile denies Tshoshane’s claims.
“I don’t know why she isn’t calling me about this. I’d appreciate if she contacted me herself… It’s not like I never paid anything for the child. This is something I would like to speak to her about, but what she said is very one-sided,” he said.
‘She is not responsible for his upbringing’