After several dragging and attack on social media, Lasizwe has bowed to pressure to open up on how he spent the R2 million he raised for the students who are poor and incapable of paying their tertiary fees. The YouTuber and comedian had partnered with other influencers in asking the public to donate funds to their #R10GoesALongWay campaign.
Last year Sweerie and his peers Sibu Mabena, Takkies Dinwiddy, and King Aya came together to call on the public to donate R10 towards their initiative. Their campaign gained traction and it saw other South African celebrities donating more than they had asked, and then other big businesses followed suite. The first milestone they reached was million in just 5 days.
Just to give a brief breakdown, KFC donated R50 000, Chivas Regal donated R25 000, Clyrofor SA donated R39 000, Pick n Pay donated R10 000 and African Bank pledged R10 000 along with 10 laptops. Standard Bank donated a staggering R1 million.
South African celebs who pitched in their monies is Jessica Nkosi who donated R10 000 and Sarah Langa contributed R20 000.
A year later, tweeps were starting to wonder where the funds have went to, especially looking at how some students who were awarded claimed to have not received any money.
“Because we participated in the initiative, we are now asking for feedback of how our money has helped students, what changed has it brought in to people’s life. These questions are directed to Lasizwe on the same platform he used to ask for our money. #Lasizwe,” one tweep wrote.
Others started to raise similar questions too till Lasizwe caught on. He got dragged very badly but he told Daily Sun that he developed thick skin so he did not allow the hate to get to him.
“Usually, I’d be upset about the backlash and worry about what people are saying but this time around, I thought let them be. They don’t know what they’re talking about,” he said.
He then clarified that companies had to get tax clearances, making the disbursement process lengthy, “Some companies that pledged to the initiative had to get tax clearances and it’s been a long process. Fundi has its own protocols it needs to adhere to,” adding that Fundi is the one that needed to address this issue with tweeps.
The publication also got into contact with FundiFund who said they are in a process of distributing funds, like they have always been doing. They then explained and broke down how the funds were used and how much they received.
“A total of R2 192 462,58 was pledged. Of the pledged amount, R 1 072 462,58 was actually received from the pledged funds…17 000 applications were received, 166 students were drawn to get their fees funded in the first draw session,” quoted the publication.
They also said that Lasizwe and his team paid every single cent they had campaigned for to the Fund.
On Twitter Lasizwe made light of the situation and played along. He posted various funny memes after trolls dragged him.