Bring Nene Home is trending on social media, as the public rally behind trying to find the missing UCT student. PHOTO: Courtney Williams.
Uyinene Mrwetyana, a first-year UCT student has been reported missing since Saturday afternoon.
This has caused a major social media movement with the hashtag, #bringnenehome trending on various platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
The social media hashtag has been rallied by celebrities, social media influencers and the public alike.
This has also helped create a page where updates and news on Mrwetyana’s whereabouts could be published, titled @bringnenehome.
Mrwetyana, known to her friends and family as Nene, is a film and media student and was a top academic performer from Kingswood College in Makhanda (Grahamstown).
Kingswood as well as the Pink Ladies Organization, which helps trace missing people, has assisted in sharing a missing person’s alert gathering many shares on social media.
The hashtag has also resulted in various prayer groups established.
Gabrielle Peckham, a first-year Bcom Investment student at the University of Stellenbosch (SU), attended the same school as Mrwetyana. “There have been prayer groups and marches all over the country. From Cape Town to East London to even Botswana,” she said.
Peckham, together with another SU student, Ella Denton, organized their own prayer group on Coetzenburg mountain on Tuesday afternoon. The group came together around 17:30pm with communication to those who wanted to join open to the rest of the Stellenbosch campus.
The group comprised mostly individuals from East London, where Mrwetyana is from, sitting at the foot of the mountain, Peckham said that they intend on “praying and sending out good energy for our friend to be found.”
Denton, who also attended the same school as well as boarding house as Mrwetyana said, “We just wanted to get everyone together so we wouldn’t feel so helpless. We believe that there’s power in numbers and wanted it to be a way to send powerful prayers and positive affirmations into the universe.”
SU student prayer group at the foot of Coetzenburg mountain on Tuesday afternoon. PHOTO: Courtney Williams.
Noel Pratten, the private investigator who was tasked to find Meghan Cremer has joined the case and acts as a spokesperson for the Mrwetyana family.
Pratten told the media on Wednesday that, ” she was last seen in Claremont at Clareinch Post Office, collecting a parcel”.
UCT spokesperson Elijah Moholola said, “UCT’s campus protection services (CPS) is working with the SAPS and other relevant authorities to ensure that the missing student is found. CPS has also put in place its own measures to trace Ms. Mrwetyana.”
The social media influence of the case has also attracted trolls’ that created rumours that Mrwetyana’s body had been found and was awaiting identification from the family at Tygerberg Hospital mortuary.
Pratton dismissed these claims and asked that any true information about the case be communicated to him via a direct contact line on 084 762 5913.