The Brighton Moyo, that the media created and Killed
It has been almost 2 months and it seems Brighton Moyo that was created by the media has eventually been killed by it. The infamous Brighton Moyo is reported to be dead at a mysterious St’ Luke village in South Africa and again at Insuza village in Zimbabwe. Farewell, Brighton aka Elliot.
One cannot help but question the authenticity of the media and their articles, following the alleged death of Moyo. On 8th April a Zimbabwean Newspaper collaborated a story that the cause of Moyo’s death was HIV and he had kidney failure and also TB (tuberculosis).
Under suspicious claims that were raised by an investigative journalist in the comment section, that Moyo was in hiding in Dandanda village in Zaka, Zimbabwe. HMetro which also operates BMetro then composes a different story and this time Moyo’s name is changed to Thabiso Proud Mlanje and dies this time from vomiting blood.
To make this even more implausible, the police at Jeppe station are still in stitches when we gave them the case number CR 506/02/19 which is the fraud case allegedly opened against Elliot and Alph Lukau. According to them, there was never such a case opened on a fraud charge.
The employer also is unable to identify if the person who has passed away is in fact Mr Moyo. Police are also not collaborating with the story as well as the Zimbabwe immigration service. So, who exactly has the facts and where are the results of the post mortem that confirms the cause of death? St’ Luke’s Matron Mthinsi laughs at the media request and wants us to think for ourselves if the story is credible.
I would not want to mention the pastor of Alleluia Ministries International so much in this article, as I would not want to butcher his reputation further. Reading all the articles circulated, the perception and the damage created and the hidden apologies that never go beyond social media and the commission desk. Who is then safe from the deadly claws of media?
So, a media house reported that Elliot Moyo was the cameraman of the pastor, then issued a retraction weeks later when it came to light that he wasn’t the one. By then, the damage had already been done and the cameraman’s life had been endangered.
The Newspaper then goes to write another article that purported that Elliot Moyo’s employer confirmed he was arrested by the police. The police denied arresting anyone and then the story never got retracted.
Cutting Edge on SABC also dogged the dagger deeper with an alleged miracle recruiter, who never mentioned how he became a member of the church and his personal issues which are seen in the videos from the church and has since gone AWOL since the interview. Calls to speak to him and get an opportunity to test the origin of the alleged SMS’s proved fruitless and he has since barred journalists. Then SABC journalist and cameraman never took a video shot of the phone used to show these messages but decided to Photoshop the cellphone screen during production.
I cannot end this, without ever wondering how journalists missed the contradictory statements from the funeral parlors of how the body of the alleged dead man ended up at the gate of the church in the first place. At first, the funeral parlor were not the owners of the hearse. Then after it was uncovered that the hearse did in fact belong to them, they changed the story. The funeral parlor who claimed they filled a lawsuit against Lukau has none, not even a case number. This is something worth digging into to uncover what really happened during the build-up to the 24 February 2019. The pastor, however, has several lawsuits against the parlor, and a lot of media houses.
Speaking to Constable Martin Maluleke from Sandton police station, he says journalists are no more as credible as they used to be. “People need to collaborate stories, these people come here and twist our words, sometime they never come, and they just write and include SAPS,” he says.
I cannot, however, stop wondering how many people have been bullied in the media space by the list of unqualified, underpaid journalists who would write, just about anything to get the approval of their editors.
So I remember when the EFF mentioned that the media was using our own black people to demerit and attack their own people. No wonder Duarte had a frenzy not so long with journalists and as she said “put me on record” the ombudsman has a lot of regulating to do.
Composed by Freddie Mclure