ICYMI: A Quick Rundown on Why Grace Mondlana Has Been On the Lips of Many
Whether you’ve been one of those people who has been living under a rock, unconcerned with trends and the lives of content creators, or you’ve been busying chasing the storms of South African political woes since Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi unleased a twister this past weekend, there’s little to no doubt that your feeds have also been populated by a certain Grace Mondlana. The award-winning content creator made her own waves after the passing of an ex lover and her subsequent reaction, prompting discourse among netizens on the socials, who were polarised over her actions.
The matter started when Mondlana shared the passing of her ex, Sipho Zulu, and how much their relationship meant to her. Preserved from the eyes of social media by being kept private, Grace wrote a poignant eulogy which chronicled their times together, from how they met in university to documenting their first flights, dates, promenades, among other firsts. The 24-year-old also spoke about how they parted ways after spending five years together, resulting in the both of them finding new partners and severing ties for all time.
A screenshot of Grace Mondlana’s eulogy | SUPPLIED
All this was shared on her Stories on Instagram, along with other stories in which Grace took a trip down memory lane to mourn the loss of her past lover with pictures of them together, some of them captioned with words such as “Baby” and emojis of red hearts.
The matter sparked controversy on social media, with one side of the fence criticising Grace for a number of things. Apart from diminishing her current relationship with what people have felt has been over-the-top grieving which purports to disregard her current relationship, people on the socials felt that her grieving in public was unfair since the relationship had been privatised all along. This was further heightened by a supposed VN Grace sent to the deceased current partner in which she insinuated that the funeral wouldn’t have been a success without her and that everything she’d done for her boyfriend post-mortem was out of love.
Listen to the alleged leaked VN below:
While one side of the public has been critical, even going as far as accusing Mondlana of “main character syndrome” for how she has seemingly monopolised the event, others on the socials have been more accommodating and empathetic, calling on humanity and for people to hold space for Mondlana to grieve the way she needs to in order to process the loss her way.
A tweet from one of the netizens on X, calling for Grace to be given a break to mourn her ex lover.
Another user of X, @marcia_breeze, took into account the fact that it had only been seven months since their breakup, feeling that Grace was well within her bounds to grieve Zulu the way she was doing since they had been together for half a decade.
How about you? What do you feel about the situation and how Grace Mondlana has been dealing with the loss?