Durban - Celebrities and fans of 'fitness bunnie' Sbahle Mpisane rallied behind her as ugly rumours that branded her as a killer emerged on social media on Monday.
A Twitter user had taken to social media to stoke the fire after Sbahle - who has been open about suffering from amnesia following her car crash in August last year - celebrated remembering lyrics to a Beyoncé song.
“Sbahle had ‘brain treatment’ to remember Beyoncé lyrics but not how she killed a person. Oh hunny,” - @_Onezwa tweeted.
The tweet was retweeted more than 300 times by Tuesday morning and calls for the Twitter user to name the person killed went unanswered.
On Monday night, Sbahle penned an emotional statement on her Instagram responding to the tweets. She detailed how difficult it had been since her accident on August 9, when she crashed her BMW on the Margaret Mncadi Avenue (Victoria Embankment) after returning from a party.
“With sadness I have watched, especially today, how I am vilified, brandished a “murderer” of an unknown passenger in my car and faking my amnesia. At first your words stung, but I felt no pain as my truth is known by God, the legal system and those that were the first responders to an accident scene I still have no recollection of,” she said on Instagram.
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A post shared by FitnessBunnie(@sbahle_mpisane) on May 27, 2019 at 1:19pm PDT
Police charged Sbahle with reckless and negligent driving. But in April, the National Prosecuting Authority said it would not prosecute, citing insufficient evidence.
“Upon perusal a decision was taken to not prosecute due to insufficient evidence,” said Natasha Kara, a spokesperson for the NPA in KZN.
At the time of the incident, Garrith Jamieson, a spokesperson for Rescue Care paramedic services, said Sbahle had been travelling alone at the time of the crash, where she hit a light pole and a tree.
“A female in her twenties has been critically injured and rushed through to a nearby hospital,” he said.
Who did Sbahle kill ?
I'd really like to know , cause our guy friend that y'all said was in the car is alive and well..
If she's not faking her memory loss , she's faking her injuries and in a wheelchair for Instagram ... TELL ME WHO THE FUCK DID SHE KILL???
— Zoe Thabethe (@zoeThabethe) May 27, 2019
Sbahle spent about three months at a Durban hospital and was released at the end of November last year.
Sbahle opened up about how difficult it was to regain control of her life.
“What the naysayers and doom spreaders don’t realise is my daily struggle of regaining control of my life. Waking up from a three week coma asking my mom Shauwn, if she had informed Michelle (my high school receptionist) that I wasn’t going to come to school. I woke up from my coma thinking I had fallen down the school stairs.
“The embarrassment of, to this day, not knowing some of the people I hung out with. My mom put me on a video call recently with Nomzamo Mbatha and I was so excited that I personally knew ‘Nomzamo the actress’, not knowing she was a close family friend who months before my accident had put me up in her house in Cape Town. That’s my life,” she said.
Sbahle said she was not faking her amnesia and said she could not remember past relationships she had.
“I had to choose me and walk away from anything and anyone that was of no good to my road to recovery. I thank God for the support of my family and friends (both reintroduced themselves to me), and the South African public, the amazing doctors at my disposal. Since January I have been going to brain treatment, daily, where I go on a brain stimulation machine for an hour, to stimulate my brain and that has helped me with my alertness and movements,” she said.
“My mom has been my champion, motivating me to stay committed and sometimes sitting with me through that daily hour. I succumbed myself to the process and it has been of great value to me. So celebrating little milestones like Beyonce lyrics, is nothing compared to the darkness I was in. I will continue to celebrate and share on my social media platforms because to me it’s an achievement, if to you it’s a source to attack on what you don’t know, God Bless you,” she said.