Matthew Lani, the controversial content producer who pretended to be a doctor, has now admitted to lying about his medical background.
Lani made this claim in his most recent in-depth interview with the Engineer Your Life podcast.
The TikToker gained widespread popularity following his arrest at Helen Joseph Hospital in October 2023.
Lani said he matriculated and attended the University of the Witwatersrand to pursue his medical studies, even though the education department in Gauteng previously said that he did not possess a matric certificate.
Lani claimed that he left the university in his fifth year after his mother had lost her job. “I did not finish my degree,” he said.
He added that he and his friends founded an NGO to raise awareness about HIV/Aids in 2021, marking the beginning of his business.
“We saw that in South Africa, education about HIV/Aids is what we are lacking; we then decided that we would start a social media platform, TikTok, and we had to come up with different characters; that is where doctor Matthew Lani was born,” he clarified.
Advanced HIV clinician
According to Lani, because he completed professional development, he is an advanced HIV clinician even though he is not a medical doctor.
He said: “I am an advanced HIV clinician because I did professional development through various training courses accredited by different institutions, including HPCSA [Health Professions Council of South Africa], Sama [South African Medical Association], and Wits.
“I think I have about 10 certificates. These certificates are not equivalent to being a doctor or a nurse.”
Because Dr Matthew is a Greater Than Aids Africa intellectual property, Lani stated that they, along with Zingelwa and Doreen, trademarked the Dr Matthew character.
“In our trademark, we are registered under education. My social media account was an extension of the character of Dr Matthew.”
He further said he was passionate about educating people about the virus because of his lived experience with it.
“I speak about HIV from my experience, but I also wanted to do the testing. But I could not do it because, in order to test a person, you need to have a certification for that. That’s why I did HIV/Aids counselling training.”
Addicted to social media attention
Lani explained that he was addicted to the attention he got from social media, which is why he kept calling himself a doctor.
“In terms of social media, I just took it as a joke. One minute I would say no, I am not a doctor, guys. When I notice that the noise is going down, I will come back and say I am a doctor,” he told the podcast.
Lani claimed in a September interview with Sunday World that he returned to live with his mother in a residential complex in Windsor East, west of Johannesburg, where she was employed.
But after her mother’s boss evicted them, he ended up homeless.
“After losing my apartment, car, and everything else because of the Dr Matthew dilemma, I moved in with her in March,” he said at the time.
