Zimpapers Logo

After he and his wife divorced, gospel singer Thembinkosi Booi still believes in love.

Booi was married to Nandipha Booi-Nkomo for seven years when their union ended.

He says his marriage hit rock bottom after Booi-Nkomo heeded the call of being a traditional healer, while he was a born-again Christian.

“Things just could not go back to normal after the process of ubungoma (sangoma training),” Booi says.

“I had to take a difficult decision to divorce my wife and be away from my kids.”

The star, who made his name with his hit album Usathane Ujampa’mafence, decided to stay away from the limelight when things were not going well.

In one of his first interviews, Booi told Sowetan that after the end of his marriage he was not rushing to settle down again soon.

“I mean I have been there and done that. I want to focus on my career and my kids. If I do meet another woman, it will be God’s will.

“I won’t go around searching for love. But I still believe there is love out there waiting for me,” he says.

While he did his soul-searching, the gospel singer did some community work with community and church choirs in Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Botswana.

“I decided to work with people I had met when I was in my prime, touring Africa.

“I just wanted to give back to the community and I trained the choirs and taught them voicing and approach to songs,” he says.

Booi says since he has “healed” he is able to open up about his divorce. He says when he got married he was ready, he had to do it because women were chasing after him.

“I had to have that one woman that I would focus on and so I decided to get married.”

After a long break, Booi is officially back in the industry with a new album titled Bayede and is excited to be back in the mainstream of the recording industry signed under a music label. — Sowetan.