CYBER BULLIED
Former winner of My Star embarassed online
At primary school other students made fun of her protruding teeth because she used to suck her thumb. She ended up wearing braces, but as if that was not enough they called her ‘Mmadichaene’!
She always believed that things would change for the better with time, but social media has made it worse for her.
Growing up, she had a big body, which inspired taunts and mockery from people, but worst of all, from fellow women. Again she took action to lose weight. But just when she thought she was doing well, she was provoked by a Facebook comment saying she is now extra skinny.
“This time, people said I look like Michael Jackson when he was in a neardeath state. They also used the ‘geu’ trend against me for my weight loss, just when I thought that they would accept me”!
This is the painful life-long bullying and body shaming ordeal of the former ‘My Star’ competition winner Tshepang Mogale. But as is human nature, every person has a tolerance limit – and for Tshepang the Fcebook post, was the last straw that broke the camel’s back.
After a rigorous six months weight loss plan that included going to the gym, clean eating and using organic seeds recommended by a friend in Dubai, Tshepang went from 125kg to 77kg.
This also inspired her to a point that she now sells the product to people struggling with weight and is also coaching over 300 people in the country.
But when negativity resurfaced, Tshepang broke down and vented out the pain she has always bottled up in a social media post using vulgar language at her aggressors.
But the good person that she is, Tshepang now regrets her recent outburst and the way she addressed the issue on social media.
“People would take my pictures and pic-mix them with a hippopotamus and I would ignore all the mockery and taunts while bleeding inside”.
She had initially planned to do a live broadcast on Saturday to explain her position, but felt overwhelmed when she lost it and fumed.
“I felt that now people just take joy in bullying me and I was so tired to take it, and I admit that I was wrong to have used vulgar words which actually came out because of anger. I shouldn’t have said that”, she said.
She also recalled a time when she was hitch-hiking and the driver of the car bluntly told her that unfortunately, he cannot offer her a ride because of her weight as she would damage his car.
While the video went viral with people feeling pity for the talented artist, she has however noted that it is not all the women who are toxic towards others.
Some people called and texted to comfort her, while others sent her love and asked her to delete the post, which she did immediately, and made an apology video.
“Tshepang is a versatile and strong woman, I understand that she was really pained, but we talked through this as I do not condone the use of vulgar language, which is why we agreed to send out the apology”, her manager, Orebotse Ofhakae, said.
Ofhakae said Batswana must learn to celebrate local celebrities now when they are alive than later when they are no more because cyber bullying could send one to commit suicide.
Local artist, Kitso Selato also My Star competition winner says players in the music industry need a platform to uplift one another because most creatives are always bullied.
Mogale is grateful for Genesis Othodentist, a dental clinic at Riverwalk mall that has offered her a dental makeover of over P50 000 after they saw her touching video