Impersonation is a rising danger in South Africa

Where we are, as a country, is in hospital and our comeback chances are getting slimmer by the day. We are infected with a disease that seems incurable and it is eating us alive.

The disease is the corrupt members of society whose intention is self-enrichment at the expense of the republic. It is the ordinary man who takes cooldrink money, the one that offers it too.

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It is the police officer turning a blind eye, the manager who looks the other way for a brown envelope and the politicians who easily forget their oath of office for one. We are under siege from criminals that have a brazen approach to doing “business”.

As we try to keep our possessions safe, our lives are daily at risk. All our efforts are in vain when we cannot rely on policing. How can we separate the rotten potatoes from the ones that will serve the country and not their pockets.

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Our finances and personal freedoms are being sent to slaughterhouses and politicians are complicit. Who is our first line of defence? How do we keep the faith in a country of “great potential, but unchecked behavioural patterns?”

The delinquents and their enablers have taken over. Dr Matthew Lani is the poster boy for the seriousness of crimes of impersonation in this country.

A fellow with a considerable following on social media platforms who gave medical advice and sold “medication” to unsuspecting buyers while across the country there are unregistered professionals who ply their trade on the basis that South Africans are too out of touch to verify credentials before they part with their money.

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Lani was dangerous in that his reach was far greater. Had Wits not outed the man how long would it have continued? By the time it had been stopped, how far would his reach have extended?

A man’s identity was stolen, just as Thabo Bester used another man’s identity. The perpetrators of impersonations must be held accountable because they play with people’s lives and that has to stop!