Moja Love: The Channel does not Condone GBV in anyway
After trending for almost twenty-four hours, Moja Love has come out to defend themselves against allegations of condoning abuse.
This comes after Sunday evening’s Isencane Lengane, a show that follows two love-birds who got married at the young age of 16 years old. And while tweeps have a lot to say about their seemingly toxic marriage, Siyacela Dlamuka’s abusive conduct toward his young wife Thando Msomi. Sunday’s show raised more red flags, with some questioning the crew’s ability to watch on as Siyacela ‘abused’ his wife.
In case you missed it, the show opened up with a rather disturbing footage of Thando Msomi retelling how Siyacela slapped her across the face when he found out that she had made new female friend.
Siyacela shortly appears explaining how he does not approve of Thando keeping friends and that “she belongs to me,” he said.
It gets worse. While Thando relayed the gruesome slap, Siyacela forcefully grabbed her phone and smashed it on the floor – an act that breaks the phone completely.
The upsetting episode was obviously viewed by hundreds of South Africans who got it trending, and not only pointed fingers at the channel as an irresponsible broadcaster but also at the 19-year-old who seemingly has extreme anger issues.
But in a media statement released, Moja Love says it does not condone GBV and that it prides itself in producing content that reflects society including its social ills.
“And as such could not sweep the GBV incident between Thando and Siyacela under the carpet. In a country burdened by Gender-Based Violence and Femicide, Moja Love has a responsibility to reflect and show the extent of this pandemic,” the statement read.
“Moja Love intervened as the incident was happening. It is important to point out that the Moja Love crew arrived during the altercation between Siyacela and Thando and police were called in. The crew was not allowed to film this. Thando was given an option to open a case against Siyacela but she chose not to exercise that option and instead, the channel moved Thando away to a different location from Siyacela. Counseling was immediately offered to Thando to deal with her trauma and the channel is monitoring her progress,” it continues to read.
Read full statement here:
Loyal followers of the show could not resist commenting, with some wishing that Siyacela could be taught a lesson and some calling for the show to be canned.