We are still fixing the country. Yekelani ukufeba – Uyajola 9/9 producers

The hype of the first episode of local cheating reality show Uyajola 9/9 was short lived after the Daily Sun claimed that the show was all a big lie and that the people who featured on this week’s episode did it all for the money.

The show trended shortly after airing on Sunday evening and dominated headlines for days thereafter but viewers who lived close to or knew those featured in the episode also took to social media to rubbish the story.

According to Daily Sun, they received tip-offs from furious neighbours who claimed Themba Zwane and Tebogo Motie live happily together in Finetown in the Vaal. The show presented Themba as somebody else’s child.

“The angry people said they grew up with these people and they were shocked by the lies they saw on TV,” stated the publication.

Daily Sun further claimed that Titi (the woman who pretended to be Themba’s mother on the show) told them that she and the other three men were just acting and she is happy to be a celebrity.

“She claimed that she and Voice are lovers and live together. She said they were promised R20,000 to make the movie. Titi said Jub Jub and Themba were together in prison,” added the publication.

The producers of the show and representatives of the channel issued a statement in response to the allegations which they later shared on social media along with the message “We are not stopping anytime soon, We are still fixing the country. Yekelani ukufeba (stop whoring around).”

Part of the statement reads as follows:

“Following our meeting with your publication’s editors, wherein as Moja LOVE out of respect for the work of Daily Sun in informing the people, we availed the participants of Uyajola 99 as per the inquiry we received. We also deem it necessary to bring to your attention pertinent information which we believe will also assist in providing the context to the questions posed to us.

“We would like to bring to your attention that in addition to the family’s retraction of the information alleged to have been given to the reporter, the two participants, the mother and the father, are married and have been married for years.

“As a result, we believe that renders any insinuations that they are not partners to be ill-informed as suggested by the information in your possession. We bring to your attention that the mother has unequivocally indicated that she only confirmed that they were paid to the reporter merely to dismiss her neighbour whom she said was nosy and would not have stopped harassing her family for information. Bear in mind that the mother was suffering significant public scrutiny and felt humiliated.

“It is therefore reasonable that she felt the need to clarify the information with you at your offices to ensure that the article that will be published will be a true reflection in terms of context and all, about what transpired at her home. The experience has been psychologically draining for the family and the channel is currently offering counselling sessions to the family. We also believe that it’s worth sharing with your paper, that the channel, before flighting the episode, as part of its due diligence interviewed the complainant who confirmed that the information contained in the episode was authentic.”

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(Compiled by Kaunda Selisho)

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