Former beauty queen Augustine Masilela-Chuene says she is tired of being taken for a ride by fellow beauty queen Phuti Khomo. The Soweto-born beauty queen, who has competed in Miss South Africa and Miss Universe pageants alleges that Khomo owes her R120 000 for an event held at the Gold Reef City Casino in Joburg in 2019.

Speaking to ZiMoja, Augustine, who runs a wedding and events company says she was introduced to Khomo by a mutual friend. She says at the time, Khomo was struggling to raise funds to host an event for her company at the Gold Reef Casino. Augustine says: "Phuthi was initially asking for cash, but since I was running an events company, I decided that I will do the event and decor for her, provided that she will pay me as soon as she gets money from tickets sales and sponsorship. She agreed to the terms and conditions." Augustine said. According to Augustine, after their agreement, she proceeded as planned to make the event a success. "I did everything we had planned from draping to table setting," she adds. She says as soon as the event was done and dusted, the former Miss teen vanished into thin air. "I tried calling her multiple times, but my efforts were fruitless," she adds. Augustine, a former news anchor says she eventually started tracking Khomo on social media and saw that she was traveling around the world. "She was in Turkey and at some point, she was still telling lies that she had not been paid for the event by the venue owners,". Augustine says she decided to go to the venue to find out what was happening. To her shock, she discovered that Khomo had been paid for services rendered. She says she confronted Khomo who became rude to her and told her that she didn't like the job she did on the day of the event. "Suddenly she told me that she was not happy with the job that I did, and I was like, what took you so long to realise " she asked her. 

Augustine who is married to former Nelson Mandela's lawyer, Bally Chuene says she eventually opened a case against Khomo and served her with a letter of demand from her lawyers. She explains: "That is when I realised she was doggy. When the police arrived at her place, it turns out she had moved, and her landlord was also looking for her as he alleged, she owed him for rent. I want her to pay me my money," she said. Khomo who once held the title of Miss Teen in 2002, is now a businesswoman and also running her own modelling firm told ZiMoja she won't pay for a job Augustine did, which she says was shoddy. She says: " That was a k*k job she did. She was supposed to do draping for two floors, but she failed. Yes, she did send her lawyer husband (Chuene) to call me, and I told them I am willing to go to court." She says she still offered to pay Augustine R50 000 to settle her five-year debt, but she refused to accept the money. A non-repentant Khomo concludes: "Out of respect, I offered to pay half because I appreciate that she came through for me when I needed help, but she refused my offer. In fact, she must stop doing events because she is failing,"