Don’t believe Zondo’s Twitter views on gqom and Titanic, warns his office

A Twitter account claiming to be that of Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo is fake, a statement from the office of the chief justice has confirmed.

The statement on Wednesday warned social media users not to be taken in by the account, which tweets under the handle @RaymondZondo. Zondo, the statement explained, was not actually on Twitter.

The account in Zondo’s name mainly tweets legal opinions, although its timeline also includes tweets which may be less expected from the chairperson of the commission of inquiry into state capture, such as a retweet arguing that “Amapiano” is better than gqom from self-professed brand influencer Karabo Mokgoko.

Fake Zondo also appears to share Mokgoko’s view that “Titanic is one of the best movies ever made”.

The account has, in fact, retweeted so many of Mokgoko’s tweets that some at The Citizen expressed suspicions that she was behind the parody account. Mokgoko, who describes herself as a “legal bae by day” and has over 1.8 million followers (but also follows over 1.8 million people), denies this.

READ MORE: Redi Tlhabi reacts to being named in Zuma’s state capture testimony

“I only run one account and it’s my personal account, ” she said. She added that she checked the account “to see what it’s all about and why you’d think I run it” only to find out that she was blocked by it.

The statement made it clear that “the views expressed on the parody Twitter account do not represent those of the deputy chief justice or the South African judiciary”.

It also reminded the public that another account in the name of Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, with the handle @Mogoeng_Mogoeng, was fake too, reiterating that the views expressed on that account also did not represent those of the senior judge or the judiciary as a whole.

“Members of the media are requested to contact the office of the chief justice to verify the authenticity of any social media account that purports to be that of a judge before attributing any statements made on the account to a judge,” the office said.

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