Johannesburg - It’s official. People’s Poet Mzwakhe Mbuli is married and living blissfully with his young and beautiful wife, Zukiswa Damse, at his home in Mondeor, south of Joburg.
The couple decided to go public with their marriage following months of speculation and after being hotly pursued by paparazzi from the tabloids, all vying for a scoop, he says.
We were not given the exact date but Mbuli says the matrimonial ceremony took place eight months ago.
“We have been running away from gossip columnists since we started going out. We were living a life of hiding. We have been under cover for more than eight months. This interview will demystify the whole thing.”
Sunday Independent was the only newspaper invited to the couple’s exquisitely decorated home in Mondeor.
We found both Mbulis at home because Zukiswa had been off from her job as a banker with a throat infection. She is from Soweto but her roots are in Tsomo, in the Eastern Cape.
Mzwakhe, who does most of the talking, says he prayed and fasted for years for God to bless him with a woman with a beautiful heart.
“I said Lord, I am looking for a beautiful heart, a woman who will understand the life I live, where I am always called upon to serve at people’s burials, for instance.
“Beauty fades, but a woman who fears the Lord stays beautiful for ever. If you pray and fast, God will give you umaqondana – the right woman. I was specific in my prayers and I also gave God my taste and preferences.”
Then, in Mogale City, he was at a meeting when he first set eyes on Zukiswa.
“I saw a beautiful woman, but that was all. I said, she is pretty but nothing came to me to indicate she was the one. I was waiting for a sign.
“I went to the second meeting. That’s when I saw her beautiful legs and the level of depth and spiritual maturity she displayed in our conversations. I realised that she might be the one. The second meeting confirmed that she had a good heart and the legs were a bonus.
“Then I asked for her number and so began the courtship, not marriage. As you will notice, she speaks less and smiles easily. When she opens her mouth she is not a ‘smartly dressed fool’. We can drive all the way from here to Pretoria and Zuki won’t utter a word. But when she does, she speaks with depth and wisdom.”
Mbuli says after he asked for her number, “I wrote a few verses. Those that wait for the Kingdom of God… I am a patient man. I am like an eagle. It flies high yet it aims for and won’t miss a fish down there in the river. Ubumpohlo buphelile (my bachelor days are over).”
While the interview is in progress the new Mrs Mbuli looks admiringly at her husband and smiles and laughs when he says something funny. Clearly the couple are in love.
All along she keeps rubbing a silver ring on her finger, while Mzwakhe is holding on to smart ID cards belonging to both of them as proof that they are now Mr and Mrs Mbuli.
She says very little and points to her throbbing throat when probed.
Asked how it feels to have been courted and now married to a famous man and having journalists following you at every turn.
She says: “It doesn’t rattle me, I understand who he is and his stature.”
Asked if it was love at first sight, Zukiswa cracks one of her disarming smiles and admits she was taken by surprise.
When they started chatting she says she “felt something” and “the more time we spent together (the more) I loved him”. - The Sunday Independent