South Africa’s favourite celebrity doctor Musa Mthombeni has been criticised for his post about Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen.
The country is on day three of vote counting after millions of people took to the polls on Wednesday, 29 May, to cast their ballots in the national, provincial and regional elections.
DR MUSA’S POST ABOUT JOHN STEENHUISEN ANGERS X USERS
With 100% of the votes counted and captured, the African National Congress (ANC) – which is the ruling party – has fallen short of a majority, receiving only 40% of the vote. In second place is the DA, while former President Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party is third.
Due to these results, the ANC will need to make a deal with other parties to form a coalition government.
Taking to his X account on Saturday, Dr Musa posted: “Phakama John Steenhuisen” – loosely translated “rise, John Steenhuisen”.
The former YoTV presenter’s post quickly garnered reactions from angry X users who are against the DA leadership.
DAMAGE CONTROL?
To try and defuse the situation, Dr Musa – who is married to Miss South Africa 2015, Liesl Laurie-Mthombeni – told netizens that he was just joking.
“Guys it’s not that serious hle. Kanti anidlaliswa?” he laughed.
Further doing what appeared to be damage control, he wrote: “The banter is dealing with you guys. Phakama Paul Mashable [Mashatile] DP.”
DR MUSA ACCUSED OF BEING A COLOURIST
However, netizens were not buying it as others accused him of being a colorist. This came after X users resurfaced Dr Musa’s old tweets about dark-skinned women.
“The history and context of your internalised anti-Blackness makes it tough to see any joke with this, particularly since you’re asking a supporter of genecide against brown people to “phakama”. You are gross! [sic]”