The sixth season of I Blew It saw former Mamelodi Sundowns player Lerato Chabangu narrating how his houses and furniture were auctioned.
Chabangu recently trended on social media after images of his gaunt figure were shared. The Tembisa-born is often vocal about how he threw his career down the drain because of his reckless lifestyle.
When Chabangu relocated to Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape to join Chippa United, he had been living with his partner in Boksburg, Johannesburg. The ex-footballer says he paid R1.5 million for the house. He had also bought a house for his family in another suburb.
According to the former footballer, his girlfriend at the time deceived him into thinking the money he was sending to her was going towards his home loan.
Every month he would transfer money into her account, with hopes that she was paying their bills. However, he eventually found out that she had not been paying for anything.
“Every month I’d send money to the madam’s [his girlfriend’s] account and I thought she was paying the bills but it turned out that she wasn’t.
“While in P. E [now Gqeberha] I found out that my properties were being auctioned. All my stuff including furniture.”
According to his family and friends, when he was living lavishly, Chabangu dumped his long-term girlfriend for the woman who later deceived him.
When their relationship started, the former right-winger bought the new woman in his life a car worth R70 000. A few months later, she gave the car to her parents and he bought her a Mini Cooper worth R85 000. The pair’s Boksburg home was valued at R1.5 million.
Chabangu enjoyed an illustrious football career when he joined Sundowns in 2005 at the age of 20.
“They [Sundowns] offered me R20 000 per month. And then there is a sign-on fee. They paid me R50 000. If I play 20 games in the first season, I would get R35 000 [sic],” he said.
In 2009, he left Sundowns for their arch-rivals, SuperSport United. At the time, according to his friend, the PSL defending champions were paying him R90 000 per month.
“When he joined SuperSport United, I think he was on a hundred and something rand salary. When he went back to Sundowns, I don’t know how much he was making” his friend says.
Chabangu added that his sign-on fee, when he returned to Sundowns in 2009, was about R1 million.
Chabangu’s financial woes began after an almost career-ending injury at the gym. As a result of this, Sundowns terminated his contract and he missed the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
Although he was cash-strapped, he did not stop partying and spending money recklessly. This resulted in him using his investments to pay his mortgages.
Chabangu thanked his lucky stars when he received a second chance in life in the form of a contract with The Dube Birds in 2011.
“We had an agreement that I would be getting R20 000,” he shares. “After playing about 50% of the games [in the season] they gave me more money. It was R75 000.”
With the money starting to roll in again, Chabangu went back to his party life.
When Maswaiswai were relegated, he joined Chippa United and relocated to the Eastern Cape.
“They paid me R30 000,” he adds. The South African.
