She ignored his texts, now he is a big man… She wants him

A South African woman is ruing her decision to ignore celebrated rugby star Makazole Mapimpi’s interest in her four years ago.

Mapimpi, was part of the South African squad that outclassed and overpowered England in Yokohama to claim their third World Cup on Saturday, November 2. South Africa, whose moniker is the Springboks, had a colossal score of 32 against England’s 12.

And as the Springboks made a triumphant return to Johannesburg on Tuesday evening, a middle-aged woman took to social media to reveal how she ignored Mapimpi in 2015, not knowing four years later, he would be one of the biggest sports names in the country.

The woman, identified as Vuyolwethu Linyana Ntshukumbana, said Mapimpi tried to express interest in her via her social media inbox, popularly known as DM, but she rebuffed his advances.

Vuyolwethu even shared screenshots to give her claims credibility.

In a screenshot she shared of her inbox, an account in Mapimipi’s name, Makazole Drex Mapimpi, sent her a “hlw” and an “ai” in May 2015.  She “blue-ticked” him.

In June 2016, the sender sent yet another message. This time around, he said: “hi”.

Again, Vuyolwethu failed to respond.

Four years later, after he had become a household name, Vuyolwethu replied, saying her silence was as a result of poor network connection on her end.

Though her message was in a South African native language, media outlets in the country say it read: “Hi I had network problems I only just saw the texts now.”

Mapimpi’s management confirmed to TimesLIVE that the page does belong to the star winger, but would not comment further.

Social media users were amused by the exchange, and took to Facebook and Twitter with memes and messages.

A section of the users alleged that Vuyolwethu is an opportunist, who is only interested in Mapimpi because of his fame and money.

@TouchGupta1 said: “All these women saying they regret it, only regret the benefits of the money they are missing out on. None is speaking about how they would have loved his kids and the brother himself.”

@Percyoung said: “Can we spare a thought for the lady who allegedly received a DM from Mapimpi four years ago, but she ignored him…”

@Touch6am said: “The girl that didn’t respond to mapimpi’s DM must be feeling like she lost her lotto ticket.”