• In a bizarre series of events, the viral fake Dr Matthew has been arrested.
• The TikTok influencer was revealed to be a fake earlier this month, but only after building 300 000 followers on TikTok through giving medical advice, selling fake weight loss pills and hosting a radio show on a legitimate radio station.
• Dr Matthew was apprehended by security as he attempted to sneak into Helen Joseph Hospital on Sunday. If charged he could face hefty fines or even jail time.

After going viral for all the wrong reasons, TikTok influencer claiming to be a doctor, “Dr Matthew” Bongani Lani, has been apprehended by law enforcement as he was trying to sneak into Helen Joseph Hospital in Johannesburg.

Earlier this month, South Africans across X and TikTok uncovered a web of lies around “Dr Matthew,” a viral sensation with hundreds of thousands of TikTok followers who had been giving out medical advice, selling phoney weight loss pills and even had a radio show on Radio 2000.

The story of Dr Matthew has resounded across South Africa and globally, further putting a case towards misinformation on social media and has even received international coverage from the likes of internet legend Ray William Johnson.

Among the claims that began alerting social media users that Lani was not who he said he was, were that he had started his medicine degree at 14 years old, and that he was the “youngest doctor to own a pharmaceutical company in South Africa.”

Lani, whose full real name is still unknown, was discovered to not actually be a doctor after the Gauteng Department of Health, the University of the Witwatersrand and Cambridge International all denied any involvement with him despite his own claims to the contrary. In fact, Cambridge stated that Lani did not have a matric and actually needed to attend a “special needs school.”

On Sunday, the Gauteng Department of Health (GDoH) published a statement saying that Lani had been “captured” by security personnel at Helen Joseph as he was trying to enter through the main entrance of the facility.

“Lani was caught just before 8pm disguised in a hoodie and wearing a surgical mask with a stethoscope around his neck,” reads the statement from the GDoH. “He had previously entered the same facility to curate misleading content under the pretence that he was a qualified doctor.”

It gets worse, as the department says “Immediately after being apprehended, Lani requested to go to the bathroom only to attempt to escape by jumping through the bathroom window.” Security had to call for reinforcements to chase down Lani who was eventually apprehended again.

Helen Joseph security have since handed Lani over to the South African Police Service. A video has been making rounds on X, showing one of the hospital security’s attempts to apprehend Lani. In it, a bloodied Lani is heard denying that the stethoscope is his and he has a surgical mask in his left hand. Lani is then handcuffed to a chair, all the while telling security to leave him alone.

Lani currently has a criminal case open against him from the GDoH. The TikTok doctor first got on the department’s radar when in 2022 it ran a campaign asking young medical professionals on what it means for them to be born after 1994. Lani sent in a video of his own experience, despite the fact that there is no record that he is a health worker according to the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA).

It is believed that Lani will face charges for impersonating a medical doctor, and if charged could face hefty fines or even jail time.