• A person who claims to go by the name Matthew Lani is facing criminal charges from the Gauteng Department of Health.
• Lani was allegedly pretending to be a doctor at Helen Joseph hospital on social media, and raised quite a following.
• The influencer was running a health advice radio show, selling pharmaceuticals, promoting major brands and making disparaging remarks against the Helen Joseph hospital all while pretending to be a doctor.

A bizarre story played out on South African social media on Monday as a viral influencer calling themselves “Dr Matthew Lani” was revealed by users not to be registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA).

Before users began unravelling a web of alleged lies around Lani, whose real name remains unknown, the influencer with a sturdy TikTok following was giving medical advice on a Radio 2000 show to thousands of listeners, was selling pharmaceuticals and was making disparaging remarks about the country’s health system purporting to be a real doctor from Helen Joseph Hospital in Johannesburg.

After his ousting on X, official entities caught wind of Lani and now the Gauteng Department of Health says it is opening a criminal case of impersonating a medical doctor.

“Lani managed to weave his way into the system pretending to be in the employ of Helen Joseph Hospital where he moved around the hospital corridors curating content for social media,” the department says.

It adds that the department’s only record of ever working with Lani came when on 16th June 2022, it ran a campaign asking young medical professionals on what it means to them to be born after 1994. Lani sent in a video.

“At the time there was nothing that raised suspicion that he was not a person in the employ of the facility,” it says. It gets even weirder, as the department indicates that at least twice Lani had made false remarks about the country’s health system, which prompted the department and other government entities to investigate the claims.

The first was when Lani made and released a video complaining of non-payment as a medical intern at Helen Joseph. The department followed up with Lani about the complaint and was contacted by the hospital’s CEO to present himself to human resources to address the complaint. He never did, instead confirming that the matter was receiving attention and deleting the TikTok video.

The second instance saw Lani apparently fabricate a story about a large number of people being admitted to Helen Joseph after taking a particular brand of weight loss pills. The story received so much interest that the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) launched an investigation into the matter and found that the claims were again false.

It is illegal in South Africa to falsely claim to be a medical practitioner while not being registered with the HPCSA, and if convicted Lani could be liable to a fine, imprisonment, or both. Added to this are the squandered resources from the hospital as well as SAHPRA over investigations launched on fake claims.

More details quickly emerged, as Lani claimed they received a Bachelor of Medicine degree from the University of the Witwatersrand, which was also proven to be not true. His purported LinkedIn page says that he is an influencer, and has worked with brands like AVAC promoting HIV prevention, Speedwrite, Nandos and FUTURELIFE.

FUTURELIFE has since said that it is not affiliated with Lani, nor does he represent the brand in any capacity.

The so-called Matthew Lani has yet to comment on the allegations put forth by the Gauteng Department of Health, or any other entity. They seem to have deactivated their TikTok account.

This is but another example of the dangers of misinformation on social media, and how a person can make all the claims in the world without providing any proof on social channels and still be believed, receive payment from a major radio station, have people buy medicines from them and cause government entities to spend resources following fake claims.

[Image – Radio 2000 on X]