Precious The Planner & those 'swindling' claims: here's what happened

Wedding planner and event designer Precious Thamaga-Mazibuko came under fire on Monday as she was accused of "swindling" a client after she was allegedly paid R100,000 to plan her 21st birthday party.

Here's the rundown of what happened:

Scam allegations

Tumi Machaba claimed via a Twitter thread that she and her mother reached out to Thamaga-Mazibuko in January to ask her to plan Tumi's 21st birthday party. They said Thamaga-Mazibuko agreed and gave them a quotation of R229,440.

According to screenshots shared in the thread by Machaba, two payments of R50,000 each were made to a Nedbank account.

Machaba claimed the well-known planner did not arrive for an arranged meeting. She said Thamaga-Mazibuko later told them she had come into contact with someone who had tested positive for Covid-19 and could not make the meeting. 

Machaba said things escalated when her mother asked for a refund from the planner, who told them they would only get 25% (R25,000) of the R100,000 since they cancelled less than three months before the event. She also allegedly said she had already done “a lot of planning” for the event.

When contacted by TimesLIVE for comment, Machaba said she could not comment as the matter was with her legal team.

Thamaga-Mazibuko issues public response 

Thamaga-Mazibuko released a statement saying she is unable to publicly respond to accusations levelled against her by Machaba, maintaining she did not attempt to “scam” her.

“We have been advised by our attorneys to refrain from discussing our client's affairs through social media. Safe to state that we stand by the principle that we have not scammed or attempted to scam any person, especially the Machaba family.”

She also claimed she had tried to resolve the matter “amicably.”

“In our effort of goodwill, we proposed a credit use by Ms Pulane Machaba [Tumi's mother] for a later date, valid for a period of one year, showing our transparency and integrity.”

Attempts to reach Thamaga-Mazibuko for comment had been unsuccessful by the time of publishing the article.