It’s amazing how willing people are to share things when it suits their narrative.

Those involved are still busy unpacking what led to Ashwin Willemse walking off the set on Saturday, and at present all we have from the men themselves is a few brief public statements.

Oh, and Castle Lager’s misguided attempt to get in on the action, which has left a bad taste in the mouth.

Now there are two things going around on social media and WhatsApp that deserve a mention.

The first is the WhatsApp audio clip that purports to be about what Nick Mallett said to Ashwin that led to the altercation, but is in fact a loud clip of sex noises.

Congrats to all those who found this funny, and please report to the headmaster’s office.

The second is a screenshot of a chat someone supposedly had with Mallet, where he dishes the dirt on Ashwin’s unprofessionalism.

You know, this one:

Something I’ve noticed – the same people who are sharing this around on social media and WhatsApp are the same people who said we should wait for all the facts before judging Nick and Naas.

Again, we don’t know what happened on that day in the studio yet, but this ‘arriving at the end of the game’ nonsense can easily be shot down.

John Maytham decided to look into it on Cape Talk, and here’s what he found:

Yup, what John said.

Nobody is immune to fake news, but many people are really averse to a little fact-checking before spreading misinformation.

What next – Facebook is going to give the first 100 people who share this post $100 000?

You should also give this clip a listen, with Clinton Van Der Berg, Communications Manager at SuperSport, shedding some more light on the matter during an interview, again on Cape Talk:

Of particular interest to many is the bit from the four-minute mark, where Clinton talks about something Nick said during their investigation:

If Nick can admit that he can’t understand Ashwin’s world because he’s “never walked in his shoes”, maybe more people should.

We don’t know what happened, but if you’re one of those harping on about ‘waiting for the facts’, maybe you should practice what you preach.

[sources:capetalk&capetalk]