Mutoko’s Facebook showdown

By Pulse team

It all started with a question and what was deemed as a misspelling, though it could have been a moniker — the kind you use with people you feel familiar with. Then a strongly-worded response.

From there, things went downhill.

Though she had been having some exchanges with the Generation Y, with copious amounts being addressed to her, Caroline Mutoko perhaps met social media this week, for real.

A fan wrote on her wall asking her to invite a CEO to her show so that the CEO could answer a few questions of concern to her, as a consumer. Perhaps as a term of endearment, she referred to her as ‘Caro’. A few comments that followed were not too pleasant.

At this point, the radio queen had the option of ignoring, pulling down the comment or politely but firmly expressing her objection. It is the kind of thing that those people we call ‘role models’ do — and don’t get me wrong, she is a role model to many young people.

In typical headstrong fashion, she responded and put her point across very clearly, but perhaps with so much unnecessary vitriol that the point got lost. Actually, from the very first phrase she seemed to be trashing an entire group of ‘average’ people.

“I let the average idle person vent as much as they need to on social media, I’m alright with the fact that you probably have nothing else of value to do with your time.”

She followed this with six clearly crafted points, where she went, hammer and tongs, at the fan. She even trashed the term of endearment.

“Have the basic skill to refer to me by my name. It’s at the top of the page for easy reference. I don’t know who Caro is. I don’t need you, not now, not ever,” she went on and on.

Within no time, the invectives came flowing fast and furious. Several Facebook pages came up. Some even going to the point of, rather distastefully, ‘killing’ her by announcing her ‘death’. They grew fast, their main point being that as ‘idlers’, they demanded an apology from Mutoko. Within days of being put up, each of the groups had at least 30,000 likes.

Their administrators kept the bile coming, going as far as digging up her apparent past and rekindling past beefs, something the good lady has a good share of. She was accused of having grown a ‘big-head’, forgetting who made her, amongst many other, some very personal, missiles directed at her. It got to the point where it became quite openly crude.

In some quarters, it is said that procedure is the handmaiden of substance. The ‘how’ matters. Even the most noble of opinions gets lost when clothed in the tatters of language unbecoming. Imagine being served your favourite meal on the floor of a pigsty!