The Independent Media group has apologised to a University of KZN lecturer after accusing him of being the mastermind behind the viral ghost social media X account, @goolammv, reports News24.

The apology was made yesterday, a day after Mohammed Vawda's legal team sent a letter of demand to the media group and threatened legal action.

The group made the accusation during a press conference on Monday backed by former Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu.

In the apology statement, the group said their initial investigations identified two individuals linked to the @goolammv X account, both named Mohammed Vawda.

The group said a technical error resulted in the 'inadvertent and incorrect' identification of the lecturer as the person behind the account.

In a letter of demand dated 16 July and addressed to Independent Media chairperson Iqbal Survé and Sisulu, the Rupert Candy Attorneys Inc law firm, denied that their client was behind the @goolammv account on X.

Vawda's attorneys said the claims made by Independent Media were ‘entirely false and have been made without any basis or evidence’.

‘Our client has suffered harm in the form of publications on social media. These attacks on our client were directly incited by your press conference and related publications.’

Vawda's legal team stressed that he had suffered severe reputational and emotional harm as a ‘result of the false and defamatory publications’.

‘Most concerningly, is that our client and his family have received multiple death threats. They have now had to move to a secure location due to your wrongful conduct,’ the letter stated.

Viasen Soobramoney, CEO of the IoL platform said he will be taking concrete steps to ensure that such an oversight does not occur again and ‘both IoL and Independent Media deeply regret the error’.

First News24 report

Second News24 report

Full IoL report