“Apartheid architect Hendrik Verwoerd is probably turning in his grave, but at the end of the day it is love that matters. Jeri [Ngomane] is a great husband and a fantastic father to our kids.”
Sanet de Klerk’s gushing paean to marriage appeared in an article in Drum magazine’s September 2002 edition, under the headline “Jeri, the rainbow man”. It contrasts strangely with her denial this week that she was ever married to the 42-year-old Nelspruit mayor.
She told the Mail & Guardian she knew articles had been published about her marriage to Ngomane, but said: “I had nothing to do with that and do not know where it came from.” Council sources say the pair have now split up.
De Klerk (32) said in the Drum article, written by African Eye News Service, that “Cupid’s arrow struck the moment I set eyes on Jeri”, while he was visiting a friend at the Nelspruit company where she works, Sisonke.
“I later saw him at a function delivering a speech, and just knew he was the man for me. We got formally introduced and shortly afterwards he proposed.”
Described as “a platteland girl”, De Klerk said she knew Ngomane already had a wife, but was surprised when it turned out to be a woman who worked nearby, Gugu Mkhatshwa.
Drum reported that their previous acquaintance “smoothed over the initial awkwardness of sharing a husband, and the two soon hit it off as ‘sisters’.”
Ngomane said that straddling the racial divide had been difficult at times. The biggest challenge was that the family was initially divided between two homes 15km apart — with Mkhatshwa living in Nelspruit, while De Klerk rented a flat in White River.
They eventually decided to live together “as a real polygamous family”. The Wise Acres, Nelspruit, house was extended for this purpose.
“Living with Sanet has made me see many similarities between blacks and Afrikaners,” Drum quotes Ngomane as saying. “We have many of the same values, likes and dislikes. She [De Klerk] even cooks like a black wife and is a normal makoti [bride]. The only difference is her colour.”
Drum reports that the two women had separate kitchens, lounges and bedrooms, but usually cooked together.
Ngomane’s sisters had helped De Klerk adjust to Swazi customs, including how to behave towards her traditionalist father-in-law. “I was taught not to look him in eye, and I don’t,” De Klerk is quoted as saying.
The magazine says that Ngomane’s profile both as Enhlanzeni District Council mayor and a senior member of the African National Congress in Mpumalanga meant that his wives “were constantly on display — whether at his side during political gatherings, gala events or even when they’re out shopping”.
At the time of the article, Drum says Ngomane had nine children — two from De Klerk’s previous marriage, one with Mkhatshwa and six from previous relationships.
However, “nine still isn’t enough”. The mayor planned to have at least three more children, including one with Gugu and two with De Klerk.
The article concludes: “The Ngomane family could well epitomise the new South African family. ‘That will be achieved when I take an Indian woman as a third wife,’ Ngomane laughs.”