A Duncan Village man whom the community claimed refused to be tested for coronavirus has hit back at his detractors, saying the rumours are “baseless”.
At the weekend health MEC Sindiswa Gomba said she was aware concerns had been raised by residents, but warned against people spreading fake news and rumours.
Now the man in question, a Duncan Village businessman, wants to clear his name.
Hetold DispatchLIVE on Monday the whole situation had taken its toll on his three business concerns.
His main source of income, a taxi business, was not operating and his meat-selling concern is at a standstill.
His woodcutting business has also ground to a halt since the rumours began.
He said after residents came to his home asking his family to leave as he might spread the virus to them, he decided to take a test on Saturday. He was awaiting the results, which were expected later this week.
He said he had been flooded by hate messages on social media, which not only hurt him but his seven children as well.
The situation escalated when a voice note from ward councillor Ayanda Mapisa went viral.
In it she tells a friend that the community had alerted her that the businessman had Covid-19 symptoms, and she should intervene and organise a police van to transport him to hospital.
Mapisa says she wont do that but she organised an ambulance and the man had refused to go to hospital.
The man's girlfriend told DispatchLIVE the rumour started when she went to a friend’s house asking for pain killers because her boyfriend had a headache.
“Because I was coughing she assumed my boyfriend and I had coronavirus symptoms,” she said.
Later that day the friend came to her home, accompanied by Mapisa, asking what the problem was and “I explained it was only a headache, nothing to do with coronavirus”.
“That night an ambulance came to pick up my boyfriend but I explained he was OK and just needed painkillers,” the girlfriend said.
“In the voice notes she says we are sick and she has seen us. She is lying that we did not want to be tested and my boyfriend refused to even going outside the house.
“She spread rumours as if we had tested positive.
“Everywhere we go people are staring at us and now they want us to leave the area,” she said.
The man said he wanted the community to know he was not positive for Covid-19, but had another illness that required medication.
He said he would not disclose his illness as it was private.
The man said he had gone to Mozambique in February and came back healthy.
“I am waiting for the results to come back and I'll take it from there,” he said.
“I did not even see the ambulance because they were talking to my girlfriend and she explained to them that all these were just rumours.”
Mapisa told DispatchLIVE on Sunday she had no malicious intent.
Gomba’s spokesperson, Judy Ngoloyi, had not responded to queries at the time of writing.