“Sello Maake kaNcube and Pearl’s Marriage Comes to a Painful Conclusion”

The couple once regarded as one of South Africa’s most enduring and loving celebrity marriages is now on the rocks. Renowned actor Sello Maake kaNcube took a shocking step by serving his wife, Pearl Mbewe, with a protection order on Saturday.

“She took the protection order, read it and threw it on the floor saying she is not going to sign it. Then told me she will ‘show me a ghost’,” Maake kaNcube told TshisaLIVE.

Mbewe told TshisaLIVE she was shocked and wanted to process what was happening.

“He is a jealous man, he is controlling, he is a maniac. I’m the one who said to him, I need a breather. He woke me up naked in my bedroom. I woke up and these men were having a field day in my house,” she said.

“How do I sign for something I haven’t read? I said I’m not signing sh*t. They opened the door because he has my key and I went into shock, only to see it’s him. I’m out of my mind thinking it must be a dream. My only fault was that I didn’t want to sign something I do not understand. They gave me three protection orders with wrong people’s names. Then they gave me the third one with my name.”

The pair have been living separately since last July after Maake kaNcube made her leave his home in Dube, Soweto, until he finished paying off her lobola, and move into their house at Blue Valley, Centurion, the veteran actor told TimesLIVE.

Maake kaNcube, who tied the knot with the publicist in 2021, had a lobola ceremony planned for September 9 this year, but he and his family from KwaZulu-Natal were sent back due to late arrival. This, the veteran actor said, was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“I tried to make this marriage work in fear that people will judge me … I’ve been dealing with so much hell in this relationship. I am done. I want to get out of that marriage,” he said.

“She has driven me insane for the longest time. For the past four years, I’ve never had joy in my life. Pearl has been trying to break me.

“I have never been a problem in my marriage. My wife has been the problem. The social media was managed by her. Everything that was on social media, every caption that was written, was written by her. I think I have a few that I suggested … but all of them, 99.9% were written by her. She was managing the social media and I was presented as someone who was happily married when actually I lived a life of hell.”

In late March Sunday World reported the couple were headed for a divorce after a source revealed Maake kaNcube allegedly approached Swanepoel van Zyl Attorneys to help him file for divorce.

In an e-mail thread seen by TshisaLIVE, Pearl engaged with the same lawyers in October, requesting to complete and finalise the divorce “as soon as possible” and requested a letter from the lawyers to help her revert to using her maiden name.

In another e-mail, Mbewe said she would not contest the divorce but wanted their house in Blue Valley sold, for her to keep one car and any financial gain dating from October 31 2021.

“I am married to this man with accrual, so everything he owns is mine and his. We’ve got two cars, a Porsche and a Mercedes. When we went to buy the car, I agreed to put it in his name because he’s my husband. If anything was to end, he either keeps the Porche or the Mercedes.”

According to sources close to the matter, Maake kaNcube allegedly claimed Mbewe was romantically involved with Lebo Keswa, who previously made headlines for her relationship with actress Letoya Makhene.

“I do not have a sexual relationship with Pearl, I have a working relationship. Sello is sick, very delusional. On my protection order, no one has spoken to me and I have not been served. I have no proof of it,” Keswa said.

This alleged infidelity, among others, has seemingly led to a breakdown in the couple’s marriage.

When Maake kaNcube was asked about whether he pursued any of his exes during his marriage, he said: “I’m being projected as a ladies man, [having] multiple relationships. Which man in South Africa does not have multiple girlfriends? I do that only when I’m dating. She can never claim that during her marriage she dealt with infidelity.”

The couple’s marriage has also been laced with abuse allegations. Mbewe lives with a permanent black scar on her face, which she covers with make-up. This after an alleged altercation between the two in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape.

“I never beat her up. She was coming into my face. She has always been aggressive. She got scraped by the carpet, she was drunk. If ever I beat her up, why didn’t she say it then? I was telling her to get out … her family was there in Grahamstown,” Maake kaNcube said

Maake kaNcube has shared images of a wound on his hand which he alleges he sustained when his wife attacked him.

“I was taking the keys of my car because the car that she was driving is my car, it’s under my name. It’s my car. I tried to take the keys from her and she bit my hand. She physically bit me,” he said.

Mbewe laughed off his recollection of events, saying the truth would soon come out because she had proof and witnesses to corroborate her side of the story.

“I thought he would serve me with divorce papers because I initiated this thing, so thought he went ahead of me to fast-forward the whole process. For them to come to my house this morning was the last straw.

“I have so much to say about everything. Everything he says, I can prove contrary to it.”