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Patrick Shai: ‘Social media character assassination is breaking me’
An acquaintance of Patrick Shai called in to 702 on Monday morning to share the details of the last phone call they had.
Patrick Shai during the Giyani Land of Blood cast mt at Shepstone Gardens on June 06, 2019 in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo by Gallo Images/Oupa Bopape)
Speaking to 702 host Clement Manyathela, a man named Thabang Sefotho from Rustenburg who is also the founder of a movement called “Tigers Do Cry” shared what was said during his last conversation with Patrick Shai.
As someone who physically abused his wife for years, Patrick Shai spent the better part of his adulthood speaking about his past in an effort to deter other men from doing what he did to his wife.
It was through his work as a public speaker on gender-based violence that he met Thabang and the pair seemingly formed a friendship.
“He did so much and he said so much and he encouraged a lot of us here,” began Thabang.
“Last week Tuesday, I think, after the Cassper thing happened on the internet, I personally spoke to him. I called him and he was so apologetic. He broke down, he literally cried on the phone. He was a very emotional person,” he continued.
Thabang then shared with Manyathela and his listeners how the late actor confided in him about how much the backlash on social media impacted him.
“His last words to me was ‘look, ntwana, I’ve tried to reach out to Cassper and the family, I’m speaking to the management but this character assassination on social media is really breaking me.’”
Thabang then said he advised Shai to avoid social media for some time to get away from the negative energy of the things being said about him and to him.
ALSO READ: Reports of actor’s suicide rock social media
He then agreed to take part in a speaking engagement on Friday afternoon, the day before he took his own life.
Thabang said that he called the actor on Friday to check if he was still coming and could not reach him. He said he assumed that he had just needed some space only to find out the following day that the actor was dead.
“I’ll tell you what Clement, we lost a giant and if Cassper or any of his family members are listening, I can attest to it that the old man was truly apologetic.”
Thabang also stated that Shai truly wanted to get in the ring with Cassper but that he wanted to do it for a good cause – to raise funds for the causes he works with.
Thabang said Shai also felt let down that the last sentence of his video in which he called the rapper Cassper Nyovest a “son of a b**ch” changed the tone of what he was trying to achieve through his challenge video.
Listen to the call from the 28-minute mark of the audio clip below:
‘Careless and selfish actions’
A post believed to have been shared by one of the late actor’s sons, Kopano, has been doing the rounds on Facebook.
In the post, Kopano lambasted his late father just days before his passing. According to Kopano’s post, the family was embarrassed by their father’s video.
He is believed to have commented on the matter to his Facebook friends, leading the post to go viral after it was shared multiple times.
Kopano has since deleted the post, however, there are still screenshots of it in circulation making it difficult to verify the authenticity of the post.
Patrick Shai’s death was confirmed on Saturday morning.
Details about his funeral and memorial services have not yet been shared.
