The Health Department in Gauteng has opened a criminal case against a man who claimed on TikTok that he was a medical doctor, although neither the University of the Witwatersrand nor the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) has any records of him on their databases.
The HPCSA said anyone who was not registered, but pretended to be, would be guilty of an offence and, on conviction, be liable to a fine or imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years or to both a fine and such imprisonment.
A separate identity fraud case has also been opened against the man, known to his followers as Dr Matthew Lani, by Dr Sanele Zingelwa, a second-year medical intern at the Tembisa Provincial Tertiary Hospital, whom Lani pretended to be, reports News24.
Lani has garnered a following for the medical advice he shares on TikTok, where he claims to be a Wits Medical School graduate – which has distanced itself from him – and the “youngest doctor to own a pharmaceutical company in South Africa”.
“Based on the names presented to the institution and the facts on hand, the university cannot find any person who graduated by the name of Matthew Bongani Zingelwa or Sanele Zingelwa in recent years,” said a statement from Wits.
Undeterred, however, he has since created a new TikTok account to stand by his claims of being a GP at Helen Joseph Hospital in Johannesburg, and of completing a degree at Wits.
In a statement, IOL reports, Wits called on the 27-year-old to retract any and all references he made linking him to the university.
“Dr Matthew Lani’s LinkedIn profile claims he studied medicine (MBBS) at Wits between 2014 and 2021. Wits does not offer an MBBS degree, but it does offer an MBBCh degree,” the statement read.
HIV
The 27-year-old Lani rose to popularity on social media after disclosing that he had successfully sued his former partner for infecting him with HIV. He apparently received more than R600 000.
His popularity continued to rise as he positioned himself as an activist for the disease and, more recently, with his weight-loss pills that appealed to many because of his apparent medical background.
With close to 300 000 TikTok followers, he used social media to dish out medical advice and sold a belly-reducing pill called the Mokhaba Pill under health brand Immuno Bloom & Plug, reports TimesLIVE.
He would post videos apparently attesting to the success of the pills and claimed to have received an order for 500 bottles from a pharmacy in the UK. Customers were paying R350 for the drugs.
However, a customer went on Twitter to share the description label on the bottle, which had spelling errors and what looked like a concocted bar code.
The supplement is not registered under the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra).
Who is Lani?
The impersonator has posed as a highly intelligent academic, claiming to have skipped grades 4, 6 and 8 to matriculate at 16 and completed his medical degree by 21.
He also claimed to not have a matric but instead a high school diploma from Cambridge College. However, Cambridge College has denied any affiliation with him.
“In light of these false claims, Cambridge International College is taking immediate action to protect its reputation and the integrity of its academic processes. We are in the process of seeking legal counsel to address this matter and will pursue all available avenues to rectify the situation,” the institution said.
Identify fraud
TimesLIVE Premium came across an old Facebook profile where he went by the name Matthew Peterson, and claimed in 2016, to have been a medical student at Wits. According to that account, he was born on 10 October 1996, indicating he turned 27 on Tuesday and is not 24, as he has claimed.
He had told followers his studies were paid for by his mother and not the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, but in a YouTube interview last year, he said his mother was a domestic worker and his studies were paid for by his former boyfriend, who had infected him with HIV.
New account
Despite TikTok banning his account on Tuesday, hours later, Lani returned to the platform with a new account. Here he refuted claims that he was a fake doctor, labelling the HPCSA’s denial of his registration as “fake news”.
Breaking his silence in a brief video shared on social media, he criticised the media and others for not reaching out to him.
However, when News24 tried to contact him, his phone went straight to voicemail.
In an online conversation where a follower asked about his qualifications, he insisted he was a medical doctor, saying he was a GP at a public hospital.
“Even if I show a degree, people will say it’s fake and that I got it online. At this point I no longer care what people say about me on social media,” he said.
“This thing started when I was going to release a herbal tea … It seems as though the people behind this are fellow medical doctors…”
Though Lani, in multiple videos, has maintained that “Dr Matthew Lani” is a “brand” he built, documents seen by News24 show he has two companies registered with the same name and surname.
In a previous video, he said: “Dr Matthew is a brand that I built…a brand that I created; it’s not a brand based on qualification, it’s a social media brand I built not knowing it was going to be this big.”
Cyber fraud
Former chairperson of the South African Medical Association, Dr Angelique Coetzee, said she too has been a victim of impersonation. She told TimesLIVE Premium someone stole her identity on social media to sell health products.
According to the identity thieves, Coetzee provides treatment for age-related hypertension “without pills” and is “absolutely sure” that anyone can carry out “a curative cleansing of the blood vessels at home and greatly improve their health and well-being”.
“They hacked my name and were advertising products on the internet and Facebook, stating I am a specialist,” said Coetzee.
“This is cybercrime and police seem to have difficulty in acting on it, even in my own case. I made a case again and asked Facebook to remove it.
“There can be no justification for anyone who falsely says they are a doctor and sells products.”
Coetzee said people like Lani put their followers at risk of consuming products which are unknown and not registered.
“This is a form of cybercrime in two instances. One is the misrepresentation of oneself and [the other is] selling products on social media and providing wrongful information that might harm people,” she said.
In June, the HPCSA said 124 bogus doctors had been arrested over the past three years.
TimesLIVE article – Dr" Matthew Lani: The risks of social media doctors (Restricted access)
IOL article – BANNED: TikTok takes down Dr Matthew Lani’s account (Open access)
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HPCSA: Medics fined, suspended, and bogus doctors arrested
3 bogus doctors arrested in registered practice
Hospital ‘pulmonologist’ with 2 surgeries among 18 bogus doctor arrests