This is probably an article some people won't like.
That's okay.
TIKKOP Media wasn't created to tell people what they want to hear.
It was created to look at the uncomfortable stories, the complicated people and the parts of the internet that don't fit neatly into a good-guy-versus-bad-guy headline.
And after digging deeper into the story of HRH Christiaan van der Merwe, I've reached a conclusion that some people may find surprising:
I'm giving the man credit.
Not a pardon.
Not a declaration of innocence.
Not an endorsement of everything that has happened in his past.
Credit.
There's a difference.
Let's start with what we know
In January 2025, Christiaan van der Merwe appeared in the Bellville Magistrate's Court facing serious assault-related charges following an incident involving his wife. Contemporary reporting stated that he faced three charges of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm and two charges of common assault. The incident had also circulated widely on social media.
Those are serious allegations.
They shouldn't be trivialised.
But there's another principle that matters just as much:
An allegation isn't the same thing as knowing the entire story.
I wasn't there.
You probably weren't there either.
Most of the people commenting on TikTok weren't there.
We saw pieces of a story.
And then the internet did what the internet does.
It picked sides.
In Afrikaans there is a saying:
'"n Wors het Twee kante"
"The sausage has two sides"
I think that applies particularly well to relationships.
When two people have shared a life together, there are thousands of conversations, arguments, good moments, bad moments, private experiences and personal dynamics that outsiders will never see.
That doesn't mean allegations should be ignored.
It means we should be careful about pretending that a few minutes of footage or one person's account gives us complete knowledge of an entire relationship.
It doesn't.
And I'm not saying Christiaan's former partner was lying.
I don't know that.
I'm not saying she was seeking revenge.
I don't know that either.
What I am saying is that we should leave room for the possibility that there are things about this story that the public simply doesn't know.
That's called intellectual honesty.
I've seen what smear campaigns can do
This is where my own perspective comes into this story.
I've personally seen how devastating a smear campaign can become.
And there is nothing uniquely male or female about that.
Men can do it.
Women can do it.
Friends can do it.
Ex-partners can do it.
Businesses can do it.
Influencers can do it.
Anyone can weaponise information about another person.
And social media has made the weapon considerably more powerful.
You don't need a newspaper anymore.
You don't need a television interview.
You don't even need evidence that reaches a courtroom.
Sometimes all you need is a phone, a following and a story people want to believe.
Once thousands of people repeat the same narrative, it can become almost impossible for the person on the receiving end to defend themselves.
Their reputation can be destroyed before they've even had an opportunity to explain themselves.
I haven't found enough evidence to honestly tell you that Christiaan was the victim of a deliberate smear campaign.
And I'm not going to manufacture certainty just because it would make a better headline.
But I can say that the possibility of reputation destruction through social media is real.
And therefore I believe people deserve an opportunity to move forward after difficult periods in their lives.
Even controversial people.
Even people we don't particularly like.
Even people who have made mistakes.
And that's where Christiaan deserves credit
Look at what happened next.
He didn't disappear forever.
He came back.
Third-party TikTok tracking currently places the @christiaanvandermerwe account at approximately 139,900 followers and 426,900 likes, with the account continuing to gain followers through the end of September and beginning of October 2026.
Think about that for a moment.
A man who became the subject of enormous online controversy managed to rebuild an audience approaching 140,000 people.
That's not proof that he was right.
It's not proof that he was wrong.
It's proof of something else:
He survived the internet.
And that is not easy.
He didn't just return. He built.
This is the part that really caught my attention.
There is now an HRH Christiaan VDM website presenting the operation as a lifestyle brand:
“It is not just a brand, it is a lifestyle.”
There's a website.
There are social channels.
There's a WhatsApp community.
There's merchandise and commercial activity.
There's even a “VDM for Hope” initiative.
His Linktree, created in March 2026, now connects his TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, website and WhatsApp channel.
Whatever your personal opinion of Christiaan may be, that's a significant rebuild.
He's also turned attention into a business
And here's another thing people should acknowledge.
Building an audience is one thing.
Building an actual business around that audience is another.
The HRH CVDM website has already been used for commercial activity, including a competition with R150 entries that closed in July 2026.
Again, you don't have to like it.
You don't have to buy anything.
But from a creator-economy perspective, the man understood that attention can be rebuilt and converted into a brand.
That's something worth studying.
Especially in South Africa, where so many creators build enormous audiences without ever figuring out how to build an actual business behind them.
And then there's the bullying campaign
I also found a petition calling for an end to what supporters describe as ongoing bullying and harassment against Christiaan and his family.
The petition claims that he returned to TikTok at the end of March, attempted to rebuild his reputation and subsequently became the target of continued online attacks.
It also makes claims about threats and harassment.
Those are claims made by the petition and should not be presented as independently verified facts.
But the petition exists.
And that matters because it shows that there is another side to the public conversation — people who believe Christiaan has changed, rebuilt himself and deserves a second chance.
Here's what TIKKOP is actually giving him credit for:
Not innocence.
Not perfection.
Not the past.
Resilience.
This man went from being one of the most controversial figures on South African TikTok to rebuilding a significant audience.
He survived public humiliation.
He survived being judged by strangers.
He returned to the platform.
He rebuilt his audience.
And he began turning that audience into a brand.
That's impressive.
You can acknowledge that without agreeing with everything he's ever done.
If you can't. There's a book called the Bible. I suggest reading it.
Maybe that's something we've forgotten
The internet has become obsessed with permanent punishment.
We find something someone did years ago.
We dig it up.
We repost it.
We comment on it.
We send it to thousands of people.
And then we decide that person should never be allowed to change.
But what if they actually do change?
What if someone makes mistakes?
What if they learn?
What if they rebuild?
What if they spend years trying to become a different person?
Do we really believe people should remain permanently defined by the worst thing ever said about them?
I don't.
Giving somebody a second chance doesn't mean pretending the first chapter didn't happen.
Christiaan's past should not be erased.
The allegations shouldn't be erased.
The court proceedings shouldn't be erased.
The people involved shouldn't be erased.
But neither should the person himself be reduced forever to one chapter of his life.
That's where I think the conversation becomes more mature.
We can say:
“What happened was serious.”
And simultaneously say:
“You still have the right to rebuild your life.”
Those two statements can exist together.
So yes, TIKKOP is giving HRH Christiaan van der Merwe credit
And I'm comfortable saying that.
Because surviving public destruction takes something.
Building again takes something.
Standing in front of an audience after people have already decided who you are takes something.
And reaching nearly 140,000 followers after everything that happened tells us one thing very clearly:
People are still listening.
That doesn't tell us whether every accusation was true.
It doesn't tell us whether every accusation was false.
It tells us that the story isn't over.
And perhaps that's the real story TIKKOP should be investigating now.
Not:
“Was Christiaan the villain?”
Not:
“Was Christiaan the victim?”
But:
“What actually happened — and how did this man rebuild his life and audience afterwards?”
Those are questions worth asking.
And if Christiaan is willing to sit down with TIKKOP Media, I'd like to ask him those questions directly.
The uncomfortable ones.
The difficult ones.
The ones that don't fit neatly into a TikTok clip.
Because if we're going to talk about someone's life, maybe we should finally let the person tell us their side of the "wors'.
©TIKKOP Media
Uncomfortable stories. Human stories. The stories behind the story.