Image: Ayanda Thabethe/Instagram
Media personality Ayanda Thabethe has come out guns blazing in defence of Zenande Mfenyana, after The Queen actress was dragged by social media users for her “rude” response to a direct message.
Zenande sparked fierce debate on social media on Tuesday when a screenshot of a conversation about body shaming went viral.
As the hashtag #ZenandeMustFall dominated the trends list most of Tuesday, Ayanda felt the Twitter mob needed to be called to order for their trolling ways.
Taking to Twitter with a stern warning, Ayanda called for tweeps to have a little mercy on Zenande, reminding them of the little human the actress has growing inside of her.
“Guys, Zenande is pregnant, growing a human inside of her — please have a little mercy.”
She went to say that the hashtag was “totally wrong” and unnecessary.
“The fact that this hashtag has been trending the whole day is totally wrong. Ngiyamxolisela lapho awone khona. Sekwanele,” she added.Zenande has been at the centre of body shaming since she announced that she was expecting last month.
This week the star slammed body shamers in a series of Instagram Stories posts, after they had criticised a picture of her preparing for the birth of her daughter.
“I’m carrying a whole human being inside my body, so if you want to say f**ked up things to me about how different I look, be my guest. But I’m done being silent about this cyber bullying towards pregnant women, specifically me in this case,” she wrote, adding that she hopes those who criticised her would do their research on pregnancy.
A fan responded to this by sending Zenande a direct message, saying she could relate to being mocked about her pregnant body but wanted to reassure Zenande that she was doing a beautiful job. The fan added that once her baby arrives she would be back to normal.
However, the actress didn’t take the words of encouragement kindly, telling the fan that her message was not “welcome” and saying that the woman should keep her opinions to herself next time.
“I’m not lala. I am not you. I never said I’m not embracing my pregnancy. Just because you laugh about it I don’t find any of it funny,” she added.