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A Christian poet is distressed after receiving a barrage of "vulgar and obscene" messages from multiple men after a fake profile of her was posted on a dating website.
This is the latest instance of harassment that Martie Wessels, a writer of Afrikaans Christian literature from Warrenton in the Northern Cape, has been dealing with since outing alleged members of "pornographic" WhatsApp groups, which she said were run by a "mentally challenged" rabbit farmer.
READ: Christian poet harassed by porn WhatsApp groups run by a 'mentally challenged' rabbit farmer
"My phone wouldn't stop ringing yesterday. My boss came out of his office and asked me to switch it off," Wessels told News24 on Friday.
Wessels has even received a "vulgar" video call from a man who was pleasuring himself.
'I'm looking for kinky fun'
The advertisement, which News24 has seen, contains a picture of Wessels with the message: "Hi I'm a early 40 year old lady looking for a good time maybe dinner and we can book a room for some kinky fun I'm into bdsm Greek and everything exciting you can call or Whatsap me on ********** add me to all your Whatsap porn groups for a free show or private msg me for pics [sic]."
Since then, she has been receiving messages from men propositioning her for sex, as well as "obscene" images.
On Tuesday, News24 reported that Wessels had been receiving death threats after posting pictures on her Facebook page of people she alleged were members of pornographic WhatsApp groups. Wessels said these groups were the handiwork of a "mentally challenged" rabbit farmer who lives in a caravan in the Pretoria area.
'I am the devil himself'
In a voice note sent by a man who identifies himself as "Bees" (Afrikaans for beast or bull), Wessels is told to leave his friends alone.
"I am the devil himself," Bees tells Wessels in Afrikaans.
"I have dubbed you 'old witch'. Perhaps you need a d**k or d**ks to wake up… if it bothers you so much, join groups where there isn't any porn. Seems to me you have a problem with porn. That tells me you never naai [have sex]."
Bees then suggests sending a video to Wessels so that she can learn more about sex.
In a separate voice note, Bees calls Wessels a c**t.
News24 is in possession of these voice notes.
'One call and you're gone'
On Tuesday, Wessels told News24 that Bees had told her he "only needed to make one call" and she would be "taken away".
Wessels told News24 on Friday that another unknown man, who had previously threatened to kill her, had changed his WhatsApp status to "I'll give you a long rope to hang yourself", a threat she believes is directed at her. She had saved his number, but doesn't know his identity.
Netwerk24 on Thursday quoted an unnamed source who claimed the rabbit farmer, identified as Elize van Swel, wasn't tech-savvy enough to pull off such an elaborate pornographic network.
The man is quoted as saying that the aim of the WhatsApp group "Elize se hasies" (Elize's rabbits) was to raise funds for Van Swel, who lives in a caravan with her fiancé, and her 22 rabbits.
According to Netwerk24, Van Swel is illiterate and only uses voice notes when posting in her WhatsApp group.
It happened from time to time that people were added who posted pornographic material, but those people were swiftly removed, the source told Netwerk24.
Added to multiple pornographic groups
But according to Wessels, she had been added to multiple groups in the past three weeks where she claims Van Swel was the admin and where members openly shared homemade pornographic images and videos.
To her distress, the latest iteration of these groups is called "Martie se porngroepie" (Martie's porn group), using the cover of her Christian poetry book as its profile image, she told News24 on Tuesday.
Wessels alleges that Van Swel had posted a voice note asking that the link to the fake dating site profile be posted "as soon as possible".
Following all this, Wessels started posting members' pictures on her Facebook page in an attempt to "get them to stop or apologise".
Instead, she started receiving threats.
News24's attempts to contact Van Swel have been unsuccessful.
Wessels has laid a charge at the Warrenton police station, which was confirmed by a Captain Moleko, who would not provide his first name to News24.
Wessels said she had turned all evidence over to the police, who are investigating.
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