THE Gauteng Department of Health is among several institutions that have distanced themselves from a self-proclaimed social media doctor who has been giving medical advice to his followers.
The department said ‘Dr Matthew Lani', as he calls himself, managed to weave his way into the system pretending to be in the employ of the Helen Joseph Hospital, where he moved around the hospital corridors curating content for social media.
A case of impersonating a medical doctor was opened at the Briton Police Station in Brixton on Monday, after the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) also distanced itself from Lani, stressing that his name did not appear in the register of health practitioners.
The council revealed that no authorisation was granted to anyone to make statements on behalf of the Council stating that he was a registered practitioner.
The University of the Witwatersrand, has also rejected Lani’s claim that he had studied and graduated from the institution.
It said in a statement: “Wits University is obliged to set the public record straight following claims made by ‘Dr Matthew Lani’ on various social media platforms. 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. We are requesting ‘Dr Matthew Lani’ to retract any such claim with immediate effect.”
Investigations revealed that Dr Sanele Zingelwa, the name which Lani claims is his real name, belongs to a second-year medical intern at the Tembisa Provincial Tertiary Hospital.
The real Dr Sanele Sobani Vambani Zingelwa has reportedly opened a case of identity fraud at the Tembisa Police Station.
On June 16, 2022, the DoH ran a campaign across its facilities as part of Youth Month commemorations where young medical professionals were asked to send in their video clips on what it meant for them to be born-frees (born after 1994).
Lani was one of the participants, and this was the only time the department had ever worked with him. At the time, there was nothing that raised suspicion that he was not a person in the employ of the facility.
In October 2022, Lani recorded a video complaining of non-payment as a medical intern at the Helen Joseph Hospital.
The complaint caught the attention of the department and was referred to the management of the hospital. Subsequently, Lani was contacted by the CEO and asked to present himself at the facility’s human resource unit to address his complaint.
He then confirmed that his matter was receiving attention and even deleted the video he had posted on TikTok at the time, as he felt it was drawing unnecessary attention.
The opening of a criminal case against Lani is in line with the Health Professions Act, Act No. 56 of 1974 as amended which states that, “practising while not registered with the HPCSA is a criminal offence, and that any person who uses any name, title, description or symbol indicating, or calculated to lead persons to infer that he or she is the holder of any qualification of which they are not shall be guilty of an offence and on conviction, is liable to a fine, imprisonment or both.”