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Livingstone Mamphiswana (left) and Ndivho Thidziambi, the two friends who ended up as accused following a prank in bad taste by one of their friends.

Two men become victims of an irresponsible joke

 

The spreading of false news may seem like a joke to many people, but it can also destroy the lives of people. Two young men from Thohoyandou experienced the lethal effects of social media the past week when they became the subjects of a false “warning” campaign.

Ndivho Thidziambi and Livingstone Mamphiswana, two young friends from Maniini, were shocked on Saturday morning when they received a WhatsApp message from a friend. In the message the faces of the two men appear next to a warning that they form part of a syndicate that kidnap young girls. The message also states that they were last seen in the Muledane area near Thohoyandou.

“He (the friend) sent us the image early on Saturday and we just thought it was a joke,” said Livingstone. “But still we warned him that his joke could pose a threat to our lives.”

It did not take long for the “joke” to get out of hand. The two friends were shocked to receive news from friends who are in different parts of the country telling them that they had seen their photos on social media platforms. “They said they were seeing us on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, where it was said that we were abusers and kidnappers of women,” Ndivho said. “We tried to explain, but they (the people who called us) still expressed doubts even though they knew us for being good children.”

On Saturday morning, Ndivho was walking in the complex at Thohoyandou when a complete stranger shoved him hard. He fell down and the stranger just gave him a hard look before walking away. “With that alone I knew things were bad for me and my friend,” he said.

Ndivho, a student at the University of Venda, started to get visits from complete strangers at his room at the campus. “They just wanted to see the face of the kidnapper of young girls and women,” he sighed. “I have since left my room for safety reasons.”

Livingstone stated that they were now living in fear, because people could mobilise and burn them to death because of a bad, senseless rumour. “Even our families are worried,” he said. “He muddied our names. We even laid a charge of defamation of character.”

The friend who spread the false news has since apologised for his conduct. “I intended the image and the words written above it for a joke among us,” he said. “It fell in the wrong hands and spread all over. I ask Livingstone and Ndivho to forgive me. I profusely apologise. I didn't know the extent of my actions. It had affected their families and now even my family is angry at me.”

Ndivho and Livingstone said that they were willing to forgive the friend. “We understand that he used social media in a bad manner,” Livingstone said. “We are forgiving him. But all we want is for our names to be cleared, because we are now living in fear.”

 

Date:25 May 2017

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

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