5 shocking scenes from Themba: My Inked World S2

Reality series Themba: My Inked World takes us back into the personal and professional life of Themba Broly (Themba Karabo Mabaso), who has been making headlines ever since Biggie’s doors closed behind him in 2022. In June 2023, during Season 1, Themba’s girlfriend, Big Brother Mzansi Season 3 winner Mphowabadimo (Michelle Dimpho Mvundla), fell pregnant with their baby boy, only for him to fumble the bag time and again. Now it’s time to check out the consequences of one man’s fool around and find out (FAAFO) lifestyle. Here are five of the most shocking moments from one of South Africa’s most candid and unfiltered reality series. Love a mess? Come de-stress with us.

Binge Themba: My Inked World Season 2 now.

1. Who shot Themba Broly?

In December 2023 Themba posted the message "They wanna see me dead,” on social media, along with a video showing himself bleeding from two bullet wounds. And he revealed that his friend and manager Doctor had just been shot in the same attack. Some fans joked that Themba’s ex, Big Brother Mzansi Season 3 winner Mphowabadimo (Michelle Dimpho Mvundla) – Mpho – had put out a hit on him, and even Themba’s sister Matlhodi Maseko was accused of trying to kill Doctor, since she questioned his role in Themba’s life in Season 1. 

The truth? Themba reveals that he was protecting a woman in a club when a bouncer, who was meant to be protecting him, shot Doctor while another guy was fighting with Themba. In a hair-raising to-camera interview, Themba reveals what it was like frantically trying to keep Doctor conscious on the way to hospital by slapping him and telling him that his girlfriend was there, or his kid, or his mom was with him. 

In a cop show, arrests would have been made on the spot. But this is not just reality TV, it’s reality. So during a phone call with Doctor, Themba admits that he hasn’t even completed their statement for a police report, and that he’s hoping, three weeks later, that the club still has security camera footage. 

2. You had one job

Looking for something a bit lighter? Tulz Madala, a previous Rough Ink client, comes to the tattoo studio for a correction because two years back, Rough Ink artist Jukza tattooed the letters RJ on his neck instead of RS. “I don’t want to make Jukza sound bad, but my n****, it’s the alphabet!” Tulz says with laugher and exasperation. 

Did somebody say Jukza? The same Jukza we’ve just seen miss the guys’ paintball night because he thought people were picking him up? The same Jukza who lays out the percentages for the tattoo business’s share split as 60% for Themba, and 40% each for himself and 40% for the other partner? (The editing team adds crickets at that point in case it slips your attention). That Jukes who admits to camera, “When you don’t have a partner, you’re careless.” Or maybe Tulz just shouldn’t ask his tattoo artists whether their female clients ever try to pay with sex. 

3. It’s not giving grownup

In Season 1, Themba’s ex-girlfriend, DJ Nqobile Khuzwayo, who’s the mother of their two children, supported him through his struggle years, then had to watch him fall in love with Mpho in the public spotlight. She was constantly having to chase after him to nail him down for important conversations about their kids’ health and schooling. Apparently, the struggle continues because, in episode 7, she has to arrange to meet him to ask what’s up, since she hasn’t been able to contact him. Themba literally squirms in his seat as he mumbles to her “I lost my phone, I told you that.” He’s giving “the dog ate my homework” energy with his whole body!

Nqobile has just one request at this point: pay the kids' school fees, like he agreed to. But Themba goes on the attack the moment Nqobile asks for the apology he owes her. “What apology?” he snaps. “How did I disrespect you?” (Imagine what that spreadsheet would look like!). It’s a big yikes as she does as he asks and starts with just one example, the fact that he chases her away when he sees her at a venue that he’s performing at. And he tries to claim it’s because she has kids now. 

4. Mpho opens the book of Revelations

During a get-together with his cousins, a family tattletale asks Themba whether it’s true that he’s dating a white girl. Themba is quick to explain that no, the lady is just the wife of one of his friends. Dropping that topic, they ask to see his new baby, and Themba throws his arms around while complaining that he hasn’t been allowed to see the kid. 

So … let’s get Mpho’s side of that story

In episode 8, Mpho reveals that not only wasn’t Themba a supportive partner while she was pregnant, “He called our child ‘that thing’”. She also claims that while she was vlogging about her first 3D scan of their baby son, Zwelihle, she turned the camera to Themba and saw disgust on his face. And why? She claims that at that point, Themba was living a double life thanks to drug abuse, and that he’d become emotionally and physically abusive. Jaws keep dropping as she reveals that when she turned to his family for help, they accused her of being the one buying him drugs. Mpho looks the camera dead-on and reveals that Themba told her that he’d been using drugs even before Big Brother. 

But did he steal R2 million from her and drain her dry? She insists that never happened. She just paid his rent for a few months.

5. A clash of clans

Finally, and not to salt our popcorn with a family’s tears, but from the moment Themba's mother and elders arrive (empty-handed and unannounced, as one uncle ungraciously points out) to meet Mpho’s mother and elders meet behind closed gates in Daveyton for the first time in a year, we’re ready for drama.

The temperature looks scorching, everyone’s sweating, and tempers boil over just one minute into the meeting. Mpho’s mom, Elizabeth Mvundla, waves the first finger while telling Themba’s mom (his aunt, since his birth mom has passed), Miriam Makoka, that Zwelihle is not “their” baby because Themba’s sister Matlhodi sent Mpho a message saying she hoped that Mpho and the kid would die in a car crash. 

Miriam later bursts into tears as Zwelihle is brought out to meet Themba’s family for the first time, and they immediately recognise the baby as a Mabaso and recite the clan names for him. But a furious Mpho starts crying as she feels it’s disrespectful of them to invoke their ancestors in her family’s home after rejecting her and the baby. And she tells her mom, “I don’t like these people. I have no peace to offer them.” So Themba’s mom just stands up, walks to the gate and leaves.

This fight won’t end there, because they’re still going to get into the ethics of bringing reality show cameras to a meeting between families. But in one of those high-end dramas like Succession, that’s where they’d cut the scene and the season! 

Binge Themba: My Inked World Season 2 on Showmax now.