From court battles to bubbly: It’s Bonang’s birthday and we look back at the past year

Media mogul Bonang Matheba celebrated her 32nd birthday on Tuesday, and what a rollercoaster of a year it has been for the star.

TAX TROUBLES

Bonang celebrated her 31st birthday with a fancy bash for close friends and family, but a few month later was in the dock at the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crime Court over alleged tax fraud. Sunday World reported that she was being investigated for failing to submit her full tax returns.

Bonang paid a R30,000 admission of guilt fine.

At the same time, Queen B was winning awards. In September she bagged the Style Influencer of the Year (Africa) award at the Glitz Style Awards in Ghana.

She ended the year with several overseas gigs, while occasionally making the trends list for a series of spicy clapbacks.

THAT'S MISS EXECUTIVE PRODUCER TO YOU

2019 brought fresh achievements for the star and news that she would be temporarily moving to America to shoot a reality show and work on several other projects.

While fans are still waiting for the show, another of Bonang's major projects made its debut at the Manchester Film Festival in March.

There, she made her debut as executive producer on the documentary, Hidden Figures, which explored the addictive tendencies caused by social media and the lives of established Instagram influencers around the globe. It also starred Bonang.

CHAMPOPO QUEEN

Bonang then pulled a massive move by launching a bubbly range called "House of Bonang"!

She described the champopo as a dream come true, after working on it for several years.

BONANG AND SOMIZI 'BURY THE HATCHET'

Behind the scenes, Bonang settled her "feud" with former BFF Somizi. She first broke the ice when she gave a shout-out to Somizi at a lunch for the Mzansi Magic Viewers' Choice Awards last year. A few weeks later the pair were snapped together at SABC1's Tropika Smooth fan competition in Cape Town.

Speaking on Metro FM, Somizi said it was at this event that they finally kissed and made up.

"We were eight personalities. I was in one group, Bonang was in the other group. Our group started first, but Bonang walked straight in. She was holding a glass of champagne. She walked straight up to me, we were like 'oh God, what is going to happen?'. She came straight to me and said 'I miss you, friend' and I said 'I miss you too', and we kissed. That was it."

LOVE IS IN THE AIR

Bonang also found her private life in the spotlight when rumours of a romance with Albanian businessman and retired footballer Fatmir Hysenbelliu surfaced in April. Although B had fans excited with her social media posts featuring Fatmir, she has been far more coy about her love life since.

SOCIAL MEDIA QUEEN

B has spent the past two months collecting awards for her work as a global social media influencer.

Last month she was honoured with the Inspiration and Influence award at the Global Social Awards in Prague, Czech Republic, and earlier this month won the coolest Online Influencer at the 2019 Sunday Times Generation Next Awards.