By Farayi Mungoshi

IN mid-April this year, I wrote an article to rebut fake news that had circulated on social media platforms claiming that my father, Dr Charles Mungoshi, had passed on.
The reason I wrote that article was to try and show people the dangers of circulating fake news, especially on social media platforms like whatsapp, twitter and facebook, among others.
The news was circulated without verification.
When we asked a few friends and relatives about the source of the news, we were made to understand that the ‘news’ first appeared on a social media platform consisting of journalists because within a couple of minutes, the ‘news’ had spread like a wild fire.
What has haunted me from that day is: If trained journalists are capable of starting such a rumour, then what of the ordinary person who did not train in journalism and does not even have journalistic ethics?
Would they not just pass on the lies after reading them, believing the article to be genuine?
Not everybody is enlightened enough to verify news sources.
If some people still have challenges determining the difference between acting and real life circumstances then what more of messages that appear on platforms claiming to be genuine news?
Here is a good example.
Some years back, after acting in a drama, Ndabva Zera, in which Jesesi Mungoshi acted as an abusive wife who would force her husband to do household chores like washing napkins, all in the name of equal rights, she was attacked on the streets by a man accusing her of negatively influencing his wife to defy him.
Now if this man could not differentiate between an act and real life, what gives us the right to think that everybody else can differentiate between lies on social media and the truth?
Nearly everyone has a phone that goes on whatsapp now, thus such news has the ability to travel faster than a phone call as it has the ability to address a group of people at once than just one when it comes to phoning.
Lies, ranging from financial unrest, prophets performing unbiblical miracles and more, have plagued platforms in recent weeks and months.
One then wonders as to why somebody would want to post such, knowing it is not true?
However, one good thing I have noticed lately is that people are now verifying with others when it comes to news on social media.
Most of the time we find that we receive such news (lies) first from concerned relatives usually in the Diaspora, asking: “Is this really happening or not?”
As you talk to some over the phone, you can actually sense the distress in their voices. One of the latest causes of anxiety caused by social media abuse was when half the nation was thrown into panic buying of basic commodities.
All of a sudden, we had motorists queuing at petrol stations stocking on fuel, while others thronged wholesalers and supermarkets, hoarding on basic commodities.
What we need to understand about such actions of abuse, be they stories of riots, financial turmoil or prophets posting pictures (albeit photo-shopped) of themselves walking on water or climbing to heaven in a bid to win congregants to their churches, is that they are aimed at polluting our minds.
To make people believe in a lie that would in turn benefit the perpetrators personally, despite the emotional pain, physical and spiritual abuse, the recipients would have to endure is evil.
It can cause death and by this, allow me to refer back to my mid-April article again where I explained how my aunt reacted upon receiving the fake news that Dr Mungoshi had passed on.
When my aunt, Tete Mabel Kadungure, sister to my father heard the news of his (Charles Mungoshi) supposed passing on, she immediately felt back pains such that she could not stand anymore.
Two days later, she was still to recover from the news despite learning that it was all lies just a few minutes after someone had called passing on condolences.
My 94-year-old grandmother was not even told the news for fear of the damage it could do to her health-wise.
My aunt has had challenges for some time, but the person who first posted the fake news would not know anything about that, neither would he/she have thought this could have had far reaching consequences.
This is the kind of ignorance that needs to be checked and hope we, as Zimbabweans, will all change our ways by using social media platforms responsibly.
No doubt social media abuse causes more damage to us as a people who are supposed to be united and guided by ubuntu/hunhu.
Is it humane to post about the death of a person who is still alive?
Is it humane to post about a financial crisis rocking so and so, yet it’s not true?
What are we trying to prove or gain when we post such things?
It is time we use social media platforms wisely.