Johannesburg: “South Africa, I apologize (sic) sincerely.”
With that tweet the real Clive Naidoo believed he would set the record straight surrounding his altercation with an unidentified Johannesburg Metro Police Department officer, which he captured on video and circulated on social media.
His video, captured after he allegedly ran a red traffic light, has become a social media sensation, making the hashtag #CliveNaidoo a top trend on Twitter.
But the South African Twittersphere can be unforgiving at times.
After becoming the subject of memes that completely took the mickey out of him, Naidoo took to Twitter on Tuesday night to “tell his side of the story”.
The Twitter handle @MrCliveNaidoo was allegedly set up by him solely for that purpose.
Despite his apology, Twitter users got stuck into him once again.
“Has the lady's salary increased yet?” asked one user.
“Don’t apologise to us, apologise to the officer,” read another.
Some even wanted to meet him in person. “How do I get to Bloubosrand from Hyde Park?” they asked.
It all became too much for Naidoo. “Hi guys, please respect me. The officer went too far. I was wrong too, but enough.”
Naidoo said he had been receiving hate messages on his cellphone and that it wasn’t his intention to tell the officer that he paid her salary.
He said he was still going ahead with his complaint to the Johannesburg Metro Police Department.
“Unfortunately i am going ahead with the complaint. The woman was unfair and rude,” he tweeted.
Naidoo deactivated the Twitter account a few hours later apparently unable to cope with the trolling.
“Ok, bye guys. I’m deactivating. I wanted you guys to see my side of the story. Honestly. I'm also deleting the video on my fb page.”
This would nevertheless have come as a relief for the other Clive Naidoo who found himself unwittingly in the middle of the Twitter storm. “I just wish that the real Clive Naidoo would please stand up,” he said yesterday.
The other Clive Naidoo returned from a family holiday in Mauritius on Sunday expecting friends and family to be exchanging pleasantries with him on social media – but that’s not what happened.
Instead the Johannesburg businessman was the victim of incessant trolling in the Twittersphere– all because of his namesake.
The trollers were after the “real” Clive Naidoo – but attacked the wrong Naidoo.
“I got back from Mauritius on Sunday and woke up to tons of Twitter notifications on Monday. I eventually asked one of the guys on Twitter why they were posting this stuff and he directed me to the video,” said Naidoo.
He said he was most amused by the video but was concerned that he was a victim of mistaken identity.
“ I immediately posted on Twitter that I was not the Clive Naidoo that everyone was looking for and that I was not even in the country at the time of the incident,” he said.
Despite his attempts, the Twittersphere was still not convinced, prompting Naidoo to post pictures of his airline boarding pass on Twitter.
“After I posted pictures of my boarding pass, then guys understood that it really wasn’t me. It was absolutely crazy,” he said.
Asked about the video itself, he said that he found the entire episode “extremely funny”.
“They taunted each other so none of them can have any complaints.” – IOL MOJO, ANA
