[imagesource: YouTube / Al Jazeera]

In December, Kouthar Davids was hit hard by COVID-19, spending more than 10 days at Melomed Gatesville Private Hospital and being placed on oxygen.

She detailed her experience in an interview with IOL, where she spoke about creating videos to lift the spirits of others in her ward, adding that the videos “helped create awareness especially among young people, that the virus was not a hoax”.

Fast forward to last weekend, and Davids was one of those protesting outside Groote Schuur hospital, where she said she didn’t believe in COVID-19, despite admitting that she had it at the turn of the year.

Watch that from the 50-second mark below:

Quite a contrast from the videos she was recording in December:

December 2020: COVID is real. It kills.
August 2021: “I don’t believe in COVID” pic.twitter.com/ey1TiW5Lzx

— robynsmithsa (@robyn_smith_sa) August 22, 2021

One more time, for those at the back.

If you don’t want to take the vaccine, that’s your choice.

But if you head to a hospital, where trained professionals who have dedicated decades to helping others are hard at work trying to save lives, in order to protest, then you are an objectively terrible person.

The clips featuring Davids have been widely shared, and News24 reached out to her for comment on what caused her change of heart.

The news site also reached out to companies which Davids said she represented, and it’s here that the story begins to unravel:

News24 contacted Coco Safar, a café that she lists herself as a brand ambassador for, in the hopes of obtaining an alternate contact number for an interview.

“Kauthaur (sic) is not a brand ambassador for Coco Safar – in fact we don’t work with brand ambassadors,” said Coco Safar’s public relations specialist Megan Gotkin.

“Until you brought this up with the store, we had no idea she listed herself as a brand ambassador and have since inboxed her to ask her to remove this.”

One down.

Next up, the City of Cape Town, which was listed as a current place of employment on Davids’ personal Facebook account:

City spokesperson Luthando Tyhalibongo said tersely: “Kauthar (sic) Davids was employed as an Expanded Public Works Programme worker in the Community Services and Health Directorate. Her contract ended on 30 June 2018, thus, more than three years ago. As such, we do not have any further comment.”

Two down.

On her Facebook account, at the time of writing, she still has ‘Vice Chairman at Ikamva Labantwana’ listed.

Ikamva Labantwana is an education support NGO, and surprise:

Ikamva Labantwana spokesperson Siviwe Dlukwana said: “No, no, eish.”

Dlukwana said she had volunteered her secretarial skills a few years ago, but was not, and had never been, their vice chair.

You’re starting to notice a pattern here, right?

Finally, Davids had also listed that she works as a presenter with Radio 786:

Station manager Tashreeq Truebody said Davids is not a permanent employee but is an external service provider who does a shift once or twice a year.

I get the feeling she may not feature on the station again for a while.

Miss Davids, or Miss Information?

Davids did eventually reply to News24’s requests to give her version of events, stating “no comment”.

That’s perhaps the most honest thing she has said in weeks.

[source:news24]