Musician Dr Malinga’s home is safe from the taxman after he paid the SA Revenue Service (Sars) R100 000 towards his outstanding multimillion-rand tax bill.

Sars was preparing to attach his home.

Dr Malinga, whose given name is Goodwill Malinga, has been on top of social media trending lists since Thursday, after he opened up about struggling to make ends meet and losing his home furniture, which was auctioned earlier this year to settle his tax bill.

Speaking to City Press on Wednesday, the Via Orlando hitmaker said he owed Sars over R2.1 million. His R100 000 payment on Wednesday was made possible through donations from the public.

“We have raised R100 000 through donations of R10, R13, R1 500 and artists donated with many things, including bookings,” he said.

Malinga said he currently owed the tax man R400 000, which he was willing to settle before Sars came for any more of his belongings.

“They have attached furniture, then cars and now they were coming for my house.”

Malinga said:

People have been helping. Others are not giving me money. They are sharing on their social media asking for people to book me and gigs have been coming in, so everything is open. Dr Malinga of Via Orlando is coming back.

The singer who is known for giving killer performances and wearing over-the-top outfits said his financial situation started to deteriorate during the lockdown when entertainment spaces were banned.

“Covid-19 messed up everything and the government did not protect us as artists. During Covid-19, I felt that my job was useless to the government. They used to call us to pull crowds but during Covid-19 when we were down, they did not come through for us. The government really failed us as artists,” he said.

The father of three and owner of Lingas Entertainment said he struggled to provide for his family.

“We had accepted everything that had been going on because we understood that God was doing what he was doing for a certain good. Sometimes, we would go out with children, you get there, they want something and you can’t even afford it. I couldn’t afford even going on holidays or doing something for the children on their birthdays. Many things were down but we were unified as a family and that helped,” he added.

The singer said he hoped to use his situation to help other artists by informing them about Sars’ issues and avoid getting into trouble.

He said:

I really hope that Sars looks into having a programme where they teach people about filing and not just show up when it is time to collect and attach our properties. They can do a better job of teaching people how to file effectively.

“For me, it was a shock that I owed them so much money. They take time to come for you but if we had known earlier that I owed Sars I would have paid them a long time ago,” he added.

Dr Malinga said he went to Podcast and Chill with MacG because he wanted to share his story.

“I went to the podcast because I wanted to sit down and tell my story in its entirety and not be misinterpreted. I am not good at typing, so I wanted to share my story without feeling judged.”