Man kills raging 'leopard' with bare hands, but perhaps not

Social media have become some of the most popular platforms for indulging in and spreading news. However, if not used well, these platforms can become sources of unconfirmed news which, in most cases, end up being fake and misleading.

The most recent story that is being circulated on Facebook is about a man from Madimbo in the Vhembe region who claims that he killed a full-grown leopard with his bare hands. Apparently, this man, who goes by the name of Richard Singo on Facebook, was herding cattle in the bushes when a leopard suddenly lunged at him and started throttling him. According to his story, he fell down but fortunately gained enough strength to wrestle the big cat and, after a great struggle, he finally managed to kill the beast. Of course, he said, he sustained severe injuries and was hospitalised at Musina Hospital.

This story spread through cyberspace like the Coronavirus. People everywhere were talking and writing about it, sharing it all over social media without anyone considering whether this could have been true or fake. People read the story and automatically took it as being legit.

The fact is, not a single eyewitness could confirm Singo’s story, and should anyone be surprised that, upon enquiry, Musina Hospital did not have any records of Singo ever being admitted? The spokesperson for the Limpopo Department of Health, Mr Neil Shikwambane, confirmed this. “We know nothing about a patient who was attacked by a leopard. No patient by that name was ever admitted at Musina Hospital,” he said.

The funniest part about this whole bogus tale, though, is that the photo that accompanied the story was that of a tiger, not a leopard. Tigers are not commonly found in South Africa, except in nature reserves, where they are kept under strict surveillance. The chance that a tiger could have escaped from a nearby nature reserve unseen, roaming freely around the African bushes, is certainly not impossible but highly unlikely. People would have been busy combing the area, searching for that tiger.

The traditional leader at Madimbo, Vhamusanda Vho-Thiwelimulambo Lufuno Rammbuda, did not have any knowledge about such an incident either. “The incident of a man who killed a leopard using his bare hands did not happen here. This is news to us. If it did happen in our village, I would have been one of the first people to get such a report. People are very fond of lies, and we take such lies with contempt. People are putting our village in the spotlight for the wrong reasons. As the leadership, we will dig into this to find out who is the source of this fake news,” he said.

Date:30 July 2022

By: Elmon Tshikhudo

Elmon Tshikhudo started off as a photographer. He developed an interest in writing and started submitting articles to local as well as national publications. He became part of the Limpopo Mirror family in 2005 and was a permanent part of the news team until 2019.

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