A South African court has found social media influencers Better Kudakwashe Madhuyu and Kylie Tonsani, popularly known as Tytie and Kiki, guilty of spreading falsehoods about lawyer Moreboys Munetsi, bringing to a close the legal drama that began with a dispute on Facebook.
Munetsi had been appointed by fellow content creators, Nyathi and Mai Nyathi, to mediate in a disagreement between the couples. This was after the pair allegedly reported the Nyathis’ Facebook page resulting in the suspension of its monetisation.
In his intervention, Munetsi reportedly tried to arrange a meeting between the feuding couples. However, Tytie and Kiki proceeded to call him an evil man and a liar before splashing his phone number on Facebook.
The matter was reported at Sandton Police Station and the pair were hauled to the High Court in Cape Town, where they lost the case. They were ordered to take down the offensive content from their social media pages.
“The respondents are directed to remove the live broadcast published on 17 July 2024 from all their social media platforms, and also remove any video or message containing the applicant’s picture and cellphone number from such platforms as well as refrain from publishing the applicant’s personal information without his consent.
“The respondent is to pay the costs of the application on a party and party basis, with counsel’s costs being taxed on Scale A.”
Munetsi told H-Metro that he had tried to resolve the issue amicably but the couple had arrogantly turned him down.
“On July 17, they went on social media and made a live video and lied to their followers that they didn’t want to work with me, kuti havana kubvira vada kushanda neni.
“They portrayed me as a bad person, they said I am an evil person. They posted my picture and phone numbers so that their followers could call me. I found the information defamatory.
“I told them to pull down the video, but they refused, and the video was pulled down after the court order. The video was watched by over 20,000 people, and the next day, it was around 500,000.
“They displayed my number, and people started calling me with threats before I went to the police. I reached out to them, and they were arrogant,” he said.
Munetsi said the pair had always tried to get money from him.
“After the summons, they said it’s me who must pay them R1m. Before the case started, the judge warned Tytie that it was wrong and asked him if he was willing to remove the video, and he agreed.
“We were given ten minutes to iron out our issues, but after the break, they changed and didn’t want to apologise, and they were warned again. The court now says, the video should be removed, the cost for the lawyer is R100 000.”
Munetsi was represented by Advocate Isiah Mureriwa, instructed by Simbarashe Kanyoka.
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