On Sunday, 9 April, photos of a man like the late South African president Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela and dressed in modeling clothes had netizens’ jaws on the floor, convincing them that he had “been cloned,” if not the next legendary Thabo Bester.
Mandela was South Africa’s first black president from 1994 until 1999. He died on December 5, 2013, at the age of 95, in Houghton, Johannesburg, following a long-term respiratory infection.
On December 15, a state funeral was held at his home in Qunu, Eastern Cape.
So, when netizens saw “pictures of Mandela” on a runway and professional photos of him at a photo shoot, they were confused and came up with all kinds of conspiracy theories to solve their wonder.
Whilst some people believed Mandela had risen from the dead, others thought he had been cloned, while others voiced that the late former president had pulled a stunt such as the infamous Thabo Bester.
Bester was recently captured in Tanzania with his girlfriend, Dr Nandipha Magudumana, after a year-long manhunt after it was discovered that he faked his death in a prison cell by setting a corpse alight and escaping without a hitch, BBC reported.
A new post-mortem investigation later revealed the body was not actually his.
Some viewers of the Mandela look-a-like photos thought that the pictures were of models wearing an extremely convincing mask and said that the images must have been taken from one event at Paris Fashion Week.
TAKE A LOOK AT SOME REACTIONS FROM NETIZENS BELOW…
“He has risen 🙏,” @MakaTits Mj Mamali Ndondela reacted.
“After this Bester saga, anything is possible now,“ @Refilwe Phakoe figured.
“Bester 11,” Andiswa Maqula wrote.
“Haibo, if it’s not [him], then who?” @Sibusiso Bless asked.
“This is not make sure. Why [does] he look like that? He is not the same as himself,” @Khangwelo Mia Rokunda said.
“[Tis is] poof that Madiba was cloned,” @Khandocool Emzansi