I’m alive, namesake confirms

When Gavin Watson went to bed on Sunday night, he had no idea he would have to spend a part of his Monday telling people he was not dead.

But this was the reality for the 45-year-old software developer in the UK, who had his phone pinging for hours after being labelled on Twitter as the Bosasa boss who died in a horrific car crash in Johannesburg at 5.30am on Monday.

Watson had barely opened his eyes on Monday when the realisation hit that it was not going to be a normal day.

“I gathered something was happening when I woke up to my phone going mad.

“I quickly realised that it was likely to be something that ‘the other Gavin Watson’ had done, as it was all SA-related,” he said on Tuesday morning.

His @gavinwatson Twitter account was getting way more attention than usual.

“I was getting hundreds of tags and loads of new followers. I wasn’t paying too much attention until one of the tweets suggested I had died.

“That’s when I realised that, actually, this was a tragic event and not something I wanted to add any humour to, as I had done previously.”

He was referring to the last time he was confused online as the Bosasa head honcho.

That was in January, when former company executive Angelo Agrizzi was testifying at the state capture commission.

Agrizzi outed Watson as allegedly being behind many of the company’s shady deals and contracts with government departments, elected officials and ANC leaders.

At the time, the UK Watson was jovial, posting fun-poking memes and pictures.

This time, however, he was more reverent.

“The only thing I did was to add that I was alive and well, as I actually had a friend call me up to see what was going on on Twitter,” he said.

But he did joke: “I’m not sure that, with my name, I’ll be tempted to visit SA any time in the future, just in case!”