A man from Gwanda who fell prey to a death hoax has said the prank left his family and friends traumatised as they thought he had died.
On 1 March, a man named Simbai Chandokwenda posted a
picture of Nkosi Emmanuel Moyo in a WhatsApp group they are part of – with the
picture captioned “Rest in peace, if there is anyone out there who might have
an idea where to locate his family contact me”.
The picture went viral and Moyo’s friends and relatives
were plunged into mourning.
Moyo had to spend the better part of the day assuring
people who know him that he was alive.
“Honestly you can’t joke about death, maybe you can do that
to your friends but to someone you don’t know that becomes something else.
Social media content spreads like veld fire and also
imagine what this did to people who know me getting this information that I am
dead.
“The person who started this rumour is someone I don’t know
and have never talked to, we are only in a common WhatsApp group so I was
shocked to see a picture of mine with a caption that I am dead, anyone else can
be in shock to find that there is a rumour that you are dead while you are
alive,” said Moyo.
Moyo is not pressing charges.
He said: “I find this to be unlawful and if I want, I can
report to the police, but I have no intention of doing that. I only want people
to know that I am alive and this person must come and apologise because
whatever he did to me, I don’t find it to be okay.”
Moyo said when he inboxed Chandokwenda, he got a response
that shocked him.
“Boss was just f**king with someone who f**ked with my
heart boss no harm intended at your end,” read the reply.
When Chandokwenda was interviewed on why he did such an act
he said it was just a prank.
“I am sorry about it; I did not have the intention to harm
anyone. This person is not dead and I don’t know where he stays.
We are just from a common group and when I was bored, I
just thought of finding something fun to do and decided to take a picture from
his profile picture and make fun out of it. I intended no harm, that’s how I
joke,” said Chandokwenda. B Metro
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