Some fans offered sympathy; some were in total denial and others speculated about a Facebook bug or wondered whether there was a bigger conspiracy behind it all.
Everybody's questions were answered when these Facebook 'breakups' were revealed to be a part of the campaign launched during Women's Month, as a way to draw attention to the plight of abused women in South Africa.
The campaign is based on the key insight that in today's social media obsessed world, ending a relationship seemingly takes just one click on the 'change your relationship status' button on Facebook. We can go from 'in a relationship' to 'single' in literally one second.
However, in the real world, for many abused women of domestic violence, changing their relationship status is a difficult and often terrifying process - but one that POWA can help women through.
"Sadly, many people still believe that it is easy for a woman to leave an abusive relationship. The reality is that it is not that simple. It requires courage and can be very difficult, even dangerous, if there isn't a strong support network in place," said Nhlanhla Mokwena, executive director of POWA.
"The women coming to POWA for help are getting younger and younger, so a campaign that plays out entirely online where they could be more receptive to our message made sense," said Corli de Kock, social strategist at O&M JHB. "Based on Facebook research we also knew that there is a 225% increase in interaction on the day of a breakup post, which would up our chances of reaching more people through this important campaign."
The second phase kicks off with a call-to-action from the celebs for their followers to also each change their status and donate to the cause. Special thanks to all the celebs that went 'single' for the day:
Akona Ndungane, Amanda Sevasti, Hulisani Ravele, Kirsty Bisset, Melanie Bala, Nkuli Sibeko-Botman, Roxy Burger, Sonia Booth, Stacey Vee, Tamerin Jardine, Tiffany Barbuzano, Tumi Morake, Verashni Hutchinson
To get involved, SMS "POWA" to 38874 to donate R10 to go to www.powa.co.za.
