[imagesource: Twitter / @NicoleGraham031]
Never underestimate the power of South African social media sleuths to uncover your dishonesty.
That’s especially true when so much of the country is watching on with a sense of helplessness, and hopelessness, day after day.
There are thousands of videos to choose from to show how out of control the looting has become, but a few have really captured the public’s attention.
Two of those – a national blood bank branch being robbed while President Ramaphosa addressed the nation and a man making off with a rather large flatscreen TV – were broadcast live.
The other, showing a man exiting a Durban Woolies with a shopping cart full of goodies before driving off in a swanky Mercedes-Benz, gained traction on Twitter.
You will probably have seen this:
They say it’s the poor that’s looting because they have no food… #ShutdownSA #StateofEmergency pic.twitter.com/LDPVIVmCrm
— ℙ (@FaizelPatel143) July 12, 2021
It wasn’t long before the man was named and shamed (we’ll get to that), but he was quick to deny any wrongdoing.
In an interview with TimesLIVE on Tuesday evening, the man said, “I picked up things that were outside, not inside. I did not step inside Woolworths.”
“What is happening right now is that I am being threatened over something that is completely taken out of context. The act of yesterday, of picking up a basket that was outside Woolworths and raking up a few items on the floor outside the actual establishment, is now taken out of context and is now stipulated as a black man in a Mercedes-Benz looting.
“People are proclaiming that I was looting, did anyone see me go into Woolworths? I never even walked into Woolworths, the basket that I had in my hand was from outside the shop. I did not go into Woolworths. I am not going to understand anyone that is going to proclaim and say that I am looting,” he said.
He said he was buying sanitary towels for his sister, as well as other essentials, adding that the car wasn’t his, and actually belongs to his father.
Great – but just the one problem.
There’s actually a longer video clip, where you can clearly see the man exiting the Woolies he said he never went inside:
Looted a @WOOLWORTHS_SA, made up an elaborate lie about how he found goods outside (also a crime) and didn’t realise there was a longer video. Whoops. https://t.co/yGwvjD3uxs pic.twitter.com/Qvafdli2Iz
— Nicole Graham (@NicoleGraham031) July 14, 2021
TimesLIVE has now named the man as Mbuso Moloi, and the sleuthing didn’t stop there.
About those wheels:
View this post on Instagram
In case that gets deleted, here’s a screenshot:
I thought it was your father’s car?
One can head to the shops with honest intentions, and then find it being looted, before exiting with what you intended to purchase.
What seems to irk people the most with this one is the dishonesty he showed after being caught out.
In all of this, let’s not lose sight of the real villains – those who plotted and planned to sow unrest to further their own political agendas.
Also, rather than sharing unverified information that can lead to panic, keep up to speed with where incidents of looting, violence, and unrest have been reported using ‘Unrest Tracker’.
