The photo of a man falsely accused of taking photos of small kids has caused a social media storm after a photo of him was circulated on safety and security groups ending in him being escorted to the police station.

But this was a case of ‘the wrong end of the stick,’ because it has now come to light that the man transports school kids for a living and has been struggling to clear his name since photos of him surfaced everywhere on Facebook and WhatsApp.

How it began:

• Last week, a photo was taken of a man peeping over the wall at school kids at Laerskool Middelburg. The school was notified and headmaster Gerrie van der Merwe beefed up security.

• This week, the photo surfaced again. This time it was alleged that the man was caught taking photos of children at the school. Mr Van der Merwe said that they heard the rumours but were not aware of a second incident this week, and definitely not one where photos of children were taken.

• A parent, who requested to remain anonymous, said that she was at Middelburg Primary School on Tuesday afternoon to pick up her child. Next to her was a traffic officer also waiting to pick up her child. Another parent approached the traffic officer and pointed to a man, waiting at the entrance of the school. The parent told the traffic officer that he was the same one spotted taking photos at Laerskool Middelburg on Monday.

The parent said that she saw the man with his phone in his hand and it “looked like he was taking photos.” She took a photo of the man when the traffic officer went to confront him but did not stay to hear what the man’s response was.

Because of the ever-present fear of child abductions, the parent said she requested for the photo to be circulated on social media safety groups to warn other parents.

The end result:

An innocent man had a call from his employer asking him what went wrong after photos of him circulated on social media. The man, who has been transporting kids for years, went to MPS on Wednesday to try and clear his name, only to be escorted to the police station and questioned.

He said he has never felt so powerless in his life, watching nasty comments about him and people sharing his photo without him being able to stop it or defend himself.

Read the full interview with the man, as well as the heartwarming story of a young girl who defended him, in this week’s print edition of the Middelburg Observer.