VEREENIGING. – The promoter and Master of Ceremony circulated a flyer of himself wearing army regalia on his upcoming Birthday party that was set to happen at BK Lifestyle in Sebokeng, Zone 14.
The flyer has since landed the promoter in hot water after the SANDF picked it up making rounds on social media platforms.
Now, Vaal President, real name Mosebetsi Macholo says he wants to clear his name and state how the photoshopped flyer came about.
The 24-year-old petrol attended states he was shocked when he first learnt that SANDF released a statement about the poster.
“When I logged on my Facebook I realised I got many notifications than usual. When I opened, people had tagged me on statuses with the army statement and I was shocked,” he said.
“I even went to Twitter and when I saw the original statement I felt scared. I shared the post and I was dragged on Twitter streets with trolls claiming I’m acting a victim. Moreover I then started seeing stories on online publications and that got me more frightened,” he added.
Mosebetsi explained how the post came about to be designed in army regalia.
“I wanted a poster which will depict me as a president. I went to a graphic designer and told him what I wanted. All I wanted was to look like a President to represent my social media name. I thought of suits will best describe my name,” he said.
Macholo said he was later sent a post depicting him in army uniform.
“I’m not going to lie, I like the idea even thought that wasn’t the initial idea. When I realised I was in trouble, I then went back to my designer and asked him where did he get the photo seeing that it’s putting me into trouble. He told me that he downloaded the photo of a army generally and cut out the face to add mine,” he said.
Macholo said the entire project is sitting with the designer and should there be a need to prove otherwise to SANDF, he will gladly produce proof.
“I don’t know any shop selling army gear. I don’t even have a relative who is in the Army. When that poster was designed I didn’t really think it will end up going such a route. If I knew better, I wouldn’t have agreed to circulating the poster,” he said.
The petrol attendant apologies to the country and SANDF.
“All I want is to be cleared from this drama. I know this may lend me into serious problems and at my age, I could lose my livelihood. I sincerely want to apologies to the SANDF and I want to clear my name. I didn’t know the effects of using these images will lead my to problem.
“If there are proper channels to follow with SANDF in clearing one’s name, I will go through them, ” he said.
