I WANTED TO MARRY HIM

Paul Mashatile's ex Gugu Nkosi tells YOU of her rage at finding out hed spurned her for another woman

- JANICE BECKETT-MSIZA

SCORNED – and over it.

That’s how Gugu Nkosi is claims to be feeling after it emerged the second-most powerful man in the country allegedly dumped her. She also heard just the day before his wedding that he would marry another woman.

Paul Mashatile, SA’s recently appointed deputy president, tied the knot last month with Humile Mjongile, the wife of his late good friend Songezo Mjongile.

And Gugu is furious about it.

Paul had promised to marry her, the 43-year-old tells YOU after welcoming us into her luxurious Versace-themed home in Morningside, Sandton. Clad in a Versace robe, her head wrapped in a towel, she leads us to her sitting room then excuses herself to get dressed.

A few minutes later she remerges in a black Balmain T-shirt under a beige suit, a Louis Vuitton belt and scarf snugly in place. She holds up three pairs of heels and asks which would go best with her outfit before settling down to tell us her side of a love affair that went off the rails.

She claims she’d been in an eight-year relationship with Paul, and they were madly in love. He said he’d marry her after the ANC’s 55th National Conference in December last year – but he married another woman instead.

She was looking forward to becoming “Madam M,” Gugu says, until she was betrayed by the man she thought was her soulmate.

“I only found out he was getting married to another woman the day before their wedding,” she says. “I found out from a woman who claimed to be one of his ex-girlfriends. I don’t know who she is, but she got my number and asked me if I knew Paul was getting married.”