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Former Nelson Mandela Bay councilor Andile Lungisa, who began his prison sentence on Thursday, was trending on social media over the weekend but had nothing to do with his incarceration.
Instead, a person alleged to be Lungisa was asking his friends and family for money through Lungisa’s Facebook account.
A WhatsApp number was provided, 061-110-7622.
Lungisa’s brother, Ayongezwa Lungisa-Ntlemeza, denied in a Facebook post that it was his brother asking for money.
He said that his brother’s Facebook account had been hacked and that someone else was asking for money.
Lungisa-Ntlemeza said the hacking was discovered after receiving numerous inquiries from her Facebook friends.
“Andile doesn’t have that cell phone number,” he said.
“We want to inform everyone that those inboxes [messages] they are not from Andile as they pretend [to be] and you can’t receive WhatsApp because you don’t have gadgets [phones or computers] to carry out said activity.
“The hacker has put Andile’s photo in the profile of this WhatsApp [number].
“This is unfortunately a wicked and evil act to represent you in possession of technological devices therefore [making it appear that he is being treated in a special way [in] prison.”
Lungisa-Ntlemeza said they were trying to temporarily deactivate her brother’s Facebook account.
When a journalist messaged the WhatsApp number, the person who responded said it was Lungisa and asked for R800 to be transferred through FNB’s e-wallet service.
But when the reporter called the cell phone number, the call went directly to voicemail.
When the reporter called the person on WhatsApp to tell him that the calls were not being answered, the person blamed “network problems.”
When asked what it was like in jail, the person replied, “It’s difficult.”
When asked to provide a photo of himself via WhatsApp, the person sent an old photograph of Lungisa sitting at an outdoor table drinking a drink.
The person did not respond to further attempts to establish whether he was really Lungisa or an imposter.
