Zola taking charge of his social media profile after imposter swindles event organisers

Zola’s new management has given the previous team that handled the Kwaito artist’s social media accounts until this Friday to close his old accounts.

This after the Zola brand had been tarnished by someone who has been pretending to be him.

The media personality’s management, Untamed Communications, has advised Zola’s followers to unfollow him on Facebook and Instagram after relaunching official accounts on the two platforms. “Excluding his current Twitter (X) social profile, [all other social media] have changed,” they said in a statement.

The change in his social profiles was sparked by someone cloning Zola’s cell number and swindling event organisers and other people wanting to work with the musician, whose real name is Bonginkosi Dlamini.

The swindler

“Last March somebody was impersonating him, the person cloned his WhatsApp,” Zola’s manager Siki Kunene said to The Citizen.

“We went to Vodacom to block the number; they did that but couldn’t block the number on WhatsApp. This person has been taking bookings, money in Zola’s name and people ask Zola when they see him, why he doesn’t show up to events [he was booked for]. It’s tarnishing his brand.”

The fraudulent activities have been taking place for over a year now, but Zola, through Untamed Communications, has hired a private investigator to help nab the impostor.

“We went to the police station but the police told us we couldn’t open a case because we weren’t the ones being defrauded,” said Kunene.

Untamed Communications isn’t aware of all the event organisers that have been scammed but is aware of one organiser who opened a case in Krugersdorp around April and one in Germiston who reported the fraud to the police in July.

“Feedback from the private investigator is that they’ve been able to trace this person, we should be finding him soon,” Kunene said. “A week doesn’t go by without a complaint from someone.”

“R35 000 is the highest amount we’ve heard of that was demanded by this person. Ask yourself how many other R35 000s has been demanded.”

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Deadline

According to Kunene, Sbu Nkambule, who has now left the country, was the sole manager of all of Zola’s social media accounts. Due to his absence in the country, Nkambule imparted that responsibility to someone else.

Untamed Communications has been talking with this middle person to make an official announcement that the current pages will be closed. As much as the said person shared the recent statement, he still hasn’t explicitly stated that the old accounts will close down.

“He hasn’t done that and we’ve asked him to inform people that his [Zola] social accounts, specifically Facebook and Instagram, will be closed down. We’re hoping he’ll do so,’ said Kunene.

The current manager said Zola hasn’t taken the fraudulent activities well. “He hasn’t taken it well, it’s affecting his brand. Hence the change of the social accounts,” said Kunene.

Kunene added that fans will have direct contact with the Kwaito legend should the hand-over happen seamlessly.

“He’ll be personally handling them and will be able to interact. People were sending emails and the information wasn’t getting through to him.”

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