Mary Alexander • 15 August 2025

A Zimbabwean man died after he was “dragged out of a public hospital by South African Dudula and March March members” claims a caption of a photo circulating on social media since 2 August 2025.

They said he “should go back to Zimbabwe or to a private hospital”, it adds. “[H]ere in the photo of his young daughter standing before his lifeless body.”

In the photo, a man lies on a pavement outside a closed gate at night. A woman stands beside him. Behind the gate we see a long, low building with light coming through its windows.

Zimbabwe, one of South Africa’s northern neighbours, is the top source of migration into South Africa. Census 2022 estimates that more than a million Zimbabweans live in the country, but make up just 1.6% of the total population of 62 million.

Since 2022, the anti-migrant social movement Operation Dudula (isiZulu for “force out” or “knock down”) has tried to block migrants from entering public hospitals and clinics. The campaign has recently ramped up with support from the new March and March movement. It has had dire consequences, with pregnant women forced to give birth alone and babies being denied vaccines.

Healthcare is a human right in South Africa, protected by the constitution and available to all.

South African man survives TB emergency

The claim about the photo has been posted across X (here and here) and Facebook (here, here, here and here). It’s attracted hateful comments on Zimbabweans:

• Good. If they don’t go back main will end up like him. Party is over. Hamba khaya zimbos [Go home Zimbabweans].
• South Africans are happy with the news…. can that happen everyday till they all go back to Zimbabwe.
• [S]outh Africa owes no zimbo free Healthcare
• [I]f he was in his sheethole country he would be still alive i heard you’ve got hospitals
• He should have died in Rhodesia [colonial Zimbabwe].

But other social media users have dismissed the claim as false:

• This is not true and you are talking nonsense, stop this bullshit that you are trying to do.
• This pic is old stupid … You don’t even where does this happen setlaela ke wena [you are a fool].
• Fake. Try again.
• STOP LYING. This photo has been making rounds since years ago about clinic operation hours.
• You’re an opportunistic liar, misusing information to earn your supper …

The photo used in the claim is at left and a Google Street View of the MUCPP Community Health Centre in Mangaung, its gate open, at right. It is the same building, confirming the report that the man was turned away because the clinic only admits maternal emergencies after hours.

Two comments include the link to an article headlined “No more 24-hour health services for some Mangaung residents”, published by Health-e News on 4 February.

Mangaung, which includes the city of Bloemfontein, is a municipality in the Free State province.

The article includes a similar photo of the same man lying on the same pavement next to the same woman.

It says that on the night of 2 January the daughter of the man in the photo brought him to the MUCPP Community Health Centre in Mangaung. He has TB and had suffered some kind of seizure.

The pair were turned away because the clinic has cut back on general emergency care, now only taking maternal emergencies after hours. A passing taxi driver lifted them home. The man was then taken by ambulance to hospital, where after a three-week stay he recovered.

At the time, the incident was reported on a local blog as well as on X and Facebook. The man, whose surname is given as Monnapula, is likely a South African.

A Google Street View of the MUCPP Community Health Centre confirms that it is the same building in the photo.

The claim is false.

The post Zimbabwean dies after Dudula members drag him from South African hospital? No, photo unrelated appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 3 July 2024

In a “family meeting” on the evening of 30 June 2024, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa announced his expanded cabinet in the country’s new government of national unity.

Ramaphosa’s African National Congress (ANC) lost its 30-year parliamentary majority in elections held on 29 May. The ANC got just 40.2% of the national vote, with 21.8% going to the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) and 14.6% to the newcomer uMkhonto weSizwe Party.

With no majority, the parties negotiated a unity government. This included giving some cabinet positions to members of opposition parties. South Africa’s cabinet is made up of ministers and deputy ministers of national departments.

The DA’s Leon Schreiber was appointed minister of home affairs. The department maintains South Africa’s population register, issues IDs and passports, and handles immigration – including the status of refugees and asylum seekers.

Soon after Ramaphosa’s cabinet announcement, a viral claim that Schreiber was “a Zimbabwean foreigner” appeared on social media.*

It reads:

The Republic of South Africa demands answers as the DA Minister of Home Affairs Leon Schreiber who is alleged to a Zimbabwean foreigner is given a key position in country. On Wikipedia Leon’s place of birth was changed 5 hours ago from Zimbabwe to South Africa, this is happening while South Africa is watching.

Migration into South Africa – particularly the migration of people from elsewhere on the continent – was a major issue in the 2024 elections. The anti-migrant social movement Operation Dudula went so far as to attempt to register as a political party before the polls.

People from Zimbabwe and Mozambique, two of South Africa’s closest neighbours, are often targets of this xenophobia.

Schreiber’s place of birth was recently changed on his Wikipedia page. But that’s no proof he’s “a Zimbabwean foreigner”. Instead, it points to disinformation.

Wikipedia tracks all changes

Wikipedia is a free and open-source encyclopaedia maintained by volunteers across the internet. Anyone can edit a Wikipedia page, although others may quickly revert – change back – the edits if they disagree.

But every single published change to any Wikipedia page is saved, with its own online address, in the page’s history.

Using the revision history tab on Schreiber’s Wikipedia page, we found that it was first created on 21 April 2020. The original sidebar summary says he was born in “Namaqualand, Cape Province, South Africa” in 1988.

In 1996 the old Cape province was divided into the Northern Cape, Eastern Cape, Western Cape and the western part of North West. Today, the broad Namaqualand region extends southwards from Namibia into South Africa’s Northern and Western Cape.

Schreiber’s place of birth remained unchanged on Wikipedia for more than four years. Then came the evening of Ramaphosa’s cabinet appointments.

Although delayed on public TV, the appointments were released at 21:00 on 30 June. Twelve minutes later, at 21:12, an unnamed Wikipedia user changed Schreiber’s birthplace from Namaqualand to “Borrowdale, Harare Zimbabwe”.

Borrowdale is a wealthy suburb in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital.

A Wikipedia “edit war” soon followed, with users reverting the change, others putting it back, and so on. At one point Schreiber’s nationality was changed from “South African” to “Zimbabwean]]on”.

The page was eventually protected from arbitrary editing in the afternoon of 1 July. The current page (as of 3 July) says Schreiber was born in “Piketberg, Cape Province”. Piketberg in the Western Cape is part of the Namaqualand region.

All of Schreiber’s other online biographies put his birthplace in Namaqualand, South Africa. There is no evidence that South Africa’s new home affairs minister was born in Harare or is “a Zimbabwean foreigner”.

Wikipedia is an invaluable source of information. But it can be abused to create disinformation.

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Published by Africa Check on 4 July 2024

The post Wikipedia edit war no proof that South Africa’s new home affairs minister Schreiber is a ‘Zimbabwean foreigner’ appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 20 JUNE 2024

“CAME TO SA ON A WHEELBARROW AND LEFT WITH R17 MILLION!”

That’s the common caption for a photo of a man carrying a heavily pregnant woman in a wheelbarrow, circulating on social media in South Africa since late May 2024.*

It continues: “The court has awarded R17,2 million to an undocumented Zimbabwean woman whose newborn suffered cerebral palsy as a result of negligence by hospital staff at public hospital in Limpopo.”

One user making the claim is the X/Twitter account Dudula News. The account is allied to South Africa’s anti-migrant social movement Operation Dudula. Its post has been liked more than 1,000 times.

Zimbabwe lies on the northern border of South Africa’s Limpopo province. Operation Dudula opposes the migration of people from elsewhere on the continent into South Africa. In isiZulu, “dudula” means “force out” or “push back”.

Supporters of the movement complain that migrants take local jobs and use public services such as healthcare.

But does the photo really show a pregnant woman who came to South Africa in a wheelbarrow, and left the country with R17 million after a Limpopo hospital’s negligence left her newborn brain damaged?

Photo snapped in Zimbabwe capital in 2008

A reverse image search reveals that while the pregnant woman in the wheelbarrow was Zimbabwean, the photo doesn’t show her “coming to South Africa”. More than this, the photo was shot in December 2008 – almost 16 years ago.

It was taken by veteran Associated Press photographer Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi. On the AP Newsroom website, its caption reads: “Misheck Bunyira carries his wife, Janet in the late stages of pregnancy to hospital by wheelbarrow in Epworth, Harare, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008.”

Harare is Zimbabwe’s capital, and far from South Africa. The woman was being taken by wheelbarrow to a hospital in Zimbabwe, not South Africa.

In April 2024 Dudula News posted the same photo on X with the caption: “ZIMBABWE: MAN TRANSPORTS WIFE TO SA HOSPITAL! A Zimbabwean man with a good education wheeled his pregnant wife to a hospital in Musina.”

Musina is a town in Limpopo on the Zimbabwe border. But again, the claim is not true.

North West high court orders damages for 2013 negligence

There is some truth to the claim that a woman originally from Zimbabwe whose newborn was left brain damaged by hospital negligence was recently awarded R17 million in damages by a South African court.

But the negligence was in 2013, the hospital in North West – the province to the west of Limpopo – and the woman is not “undocumented”. And she’s not the woman in the photo.

On 16 May 2024 the North West high court ordered the head of the province’s health department to pay the mother of a severely brain-damaged 12-year-old child R17.3 million for the negligence of the hospital where the child was born.

The child suffered oxygen deprivation at birth, cannot sit unsupported and cannot speak. The court found the health department was “100% responsible” for the child’s disability.

The mother came to South Africa from Zimbabwe in 2005. She has had her Zimbabwean exemption permit since 2010, and so is not “undocumented”.

The health department’s lawyers had argued that she should be paid lesser damages because she is a Zimbabwean citizen. This was rejected by the judge, who said South Africa’s constitution gave equal protection to all.

The false and xenophobic claim mangles two separate events.

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Published by Africa Check on 24 June 2024

The post Zim mom came to South Africa in wheelbarrow and left with millions? No, xenophobic claim a mashup of separate events appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 17 JUNE 2024

Warning: This report fact-checks and links to violent and distressing imagery.

“This is the height of savagery. Nigerians reportedly burnt alive in South Africa this morning,” reads the caption of a video posted on X on 15 May 2024.

The graphically violent video is difficult to describe. Two men, one motionless, lie under a pile of tyres that burst into flames. As one rises to escape the fire he is hacked with a machete. The camera pans to show many more bodies on a road. Blood is everywhere.

A screenshot of the X post was shared on Facebook on the same day with the caption: “Nigerians in south Africa.”*

The following day, 16 May, Nigerian separatist Simon Ekba posted the video on X with a lengthy message to Julius Malema, leader of South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) political party. South Africa held elections two weeks later.

The message reads, in part: “Dear @Julius_S_Malema this barbarism by South Africans against fellow Africans is completely unacceptable […] The people these guys are killing are Biafrans and Yorubas, they came to SA with Nigeria identity shouldn’t be a death sentence.”

It was soon reposted across social media with the video or screenshots from it.

Ekpa is the self-proclaimed “prime minister” of a faction of the Indigenous People of Biafra, a secessionist movement that seeks the independence of southeastern Nigeria from the rest of the country. He is a citizen of Finland.

Xenophobia and the ‘burning man’

Outbreaks of xenophobic violence, mainly against people from elsewhere on the continent, have erupted across South Africa for decades.

The infamous 2008 attacks killed 19 foreigners. One was Mozambican Ernesto Alfabeto Nhamuave, who was beaten, stabbed and set alight. Photos of flames engulfing a dying Nhamuave – the iconic “burning man” – drew the world’s attention.

Since 1994 “xenophobic discrimination” has killed at least 673 migrants, according to data collected by Wits University’s Xenowatch project.

More recently, anti-migrant sentiment has been taken up by the social movement and unregistered political party Operation Dudula. “Dudula” means “push back” or “force out” in isiZulu. Malema and the EFF have spoken out against Operation Dudula.

But does the viral video really show an attack on Nigerians in South Africa?

‘Mobsters burned alive’ in Haiti

Outbreaks of xenophobic violence in South Africa attract global media attention. Photos of “burning man” Nhamuave, for example, were splashed across newspaper pages the world over in 2008.

But there have been no credible news reports of Nigerians being “burnt alive” in South Africa in May 2024.

Africa Check took screenshots from the video and ran them through reverse image searches. These revealed that it was shot in the troubled Caribbean island country of Haiti in 2023.

A longer version of the video was posted on the website Krudplug on 25 April of that year. Here its description reads:

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI: A mob in the Haitian capital beat and burned 13 suspected gang members to death with gasoline-soaked tires Monday after pulling the men from police custody at a traffic stop, police and witnesses said. The horrific vigilante violence underlined public anger over the increasingly lawless situation in Port-au-Prince where criminal gangs have taken control over an estimated 60% of the city since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.

It was also published by the UK’s Daily Mail newspaper in an article dated 1 May 2023, under the headline: “Mobsters burned alive, public stonings, gang-rape, ransom demands and political assassinations: How violence has gripped Haiti – with civilians now carrying out brutal executions to reclaim the streets.”

News reports on the incident can also be seen here, here, here and here.

Social media users have also claimed that the video was recently shot in Mozambique, and in Kenya (here, here and here).

None of this is true. The video shows an attack on gang members in Haiti in 2023.

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Edited version published by Africa Check on 20 June 2024

The post Video of vigilante violence in Haiti, not ‘Nigerians burnt alive in South Africa’ appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 11 JUNE 2024

Warning: This report fact-checks and links to distressing imagery that includes sexual assault.

A video of a group of men assaulting two naked and bleeding women on a road has been circulating on X/Twitter since May 2024 with the claim that the men are Nigerian and the women South African.

A male voiceover says:

There’s a trend in Nigeria whereby two South African ladies were killed by Nigerian men, saying that they are paying revenge for their brothers who were killed in South Africa. When I say ‘brothers’ I’m talking about those drug dealers who were killed by South Africans.

He adds: “Guys, please, especially our ladies, stop dating Nigerians, guys. Stop dating these bastards. They will promise you marriage, good life, and take you to Nigeria only to kill you …”

The video has been posted with comments such as:

• They say that 2 South African women were killed in Nigeria as a form of revenge against Nigerians who were killed in South Africa.
• South African Ladies I say you must stop dating Nigerians cause you will be killed like these girls in Nigeria.
• South African jollofinas they went with their boyfriends to Nigeria and when they there their boyfriends turned their backs against them as usual …
• Jollofinas are being killed in Nigeria, ne ba ya kae [it doesn’t stop]?

Jollofina is an insulting and offensive term for a South African woman believed to have a reputation for dating Nigerian men.

Screengrabs of the video have been posted on Facebook with a similar claim.*

“IF BEING A SOUTH AFRICAN or TSWANA WOMAN IN NIGERIA IS A CRIME THAN WHY DO WE HAVE THEM HERE,” a typical caption reads. “NIGERIAN MEN allegedly Drage Two Woman believed to be MZANSI Women. Moping The Street With Their Bood.”

Setswana is a language spoken in South Africa and neighbouring Botswana. Mzansi is an informal name for South Africa.

Xenophobic killings in South Africa

South Africa has a long history of xenophobic violence against migrants from elsewhere on the continent, including Nigeria.

Since 1994, according to the Xenowatch project at Wits University in Johannesburg, “tens of thousands of people have been harassed, attacked, or killed because of their status as outsiders or foreign nationals”.

Xenowatch has recorded a total of 672 migrant deaths in South Africa from 1994 to May 2024 as a result of xenophobic violence.

And a common xenophobic stereotype in South Africa is that Nigerians are drug dealers.

But does the video really show two South African women being murdered by men in Nigeria, as “revenge for their brothers who were killed in South Africa”?

Vigilantes strip, beat suspected robbers on Ugandan highway

Comments on the video and the screengrabs indicate that it was filmed in Uganda.

One points to the blue stripes on a nearby minibus taxi, stripes commonly seen and required by law on commuter taxis in Uganda. These are not seen on minibuses in Nigeria.

Another includes a screenshot of an article headlined: “2 women stripped naked and beaten in public for allegedly stealing in Uganda.”

The article was published on Wow News in 2022. It includes a video of the same incident shot from a different angle, as well as photos that match the viral video.

A search for the headline led Africa Check to several news reports on the incident, which took place on 5 October 2022.

The women were reportedly part of a group of four, including two men, who had robbed taxi passengers along the northern bypass in the Kira municipality of Kampala, Uganda’s capital. When caught, all four were stripped.

“Two naked male suspects were dumped in a swamp while the crowd continuously beat and filmed two women,” one report reads. “Whenever the female suspects attempted resisting the order to expose their private parts, the crowd responded with caning.”

There was no report that the women were killed. Ugandan police opened a case of attempted murder and indecent assault against the assailants.

The video was shot in Uganda, not Nigeria. There’s no evidence that anyone involved was South African or Nigerian.

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Published by Africa Check on 18 June 2024

The post South African women murdered in Nigeria as revenge for xenophobia? No, video of public assault in Uganda appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 22 MARCH 2024

On 4 March 2024 US president Joe Biden signed an executive order ending the “emergency with respect to the situation in Zimbabwe”.

It withdrew three previous presidential orders – from 2003, 2005 and 2008 – that imposed sanctions on members of the Zimbabwean government, military and civil service.

The orders said these individuals were responsible for undermining democracy in Zimbabwe, contributing to the “deliberate breakdown in the rule of law” in the country, as well as “politically motivated violence and intimidation”.

Executive order 3288 of 2003 imposed sanctions on a list of 77 high-ranking officials, including Zimbabwe’s then-president Robert Mugabe.

This kicked off what became known as the US government’s Zimbabwe sanctions programme, implemented by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac). It was expanded by the executive orders 3391 of 2005 and 13469 of 2008 to include more officials, their immediate family and their businesses.

In his March 2024 order, Biden said that while he remained “concerned with the situation in Zimbabwe”, executive order 3288 was “no longer needed”.

‘Why Zimbabweans must go back home’

Soon after news of Biden’s order broke, social media users began to claim that it meant the US had lifted sanctions “on Zimbabwe”.*

In neighbouring South Africa, some versions of the claim have overtones of xenophobia.

A 13 March X/Twitter post by Dudula News reads:

WHY ZIMBABWEANS MUST GO BACK HOME. The US has lifted sanctions on Zimbabwe and investors are looking to pour money into the country. ZEPs must be terminated with immediate effect so that Zimbabweans can go back home to rebuild their country.

Operation Dudula is a South African anti-migrant movement widely considered to be xenophobic. ZEPs or the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit allows people from Zimbabwe to live and work in South Africa.

Other versions of the claim include:

• Zimbabwe sanctions are lifted then zambabwean go home. USA lifted them so burn us South African when we come looking for jobs.
• Now that the United States has lifted the decades long of sanctions on Zimbabwe there is a very big speculation that there are somr countries that will be the next targets, and South Africa looks like the likely candidate …
• Recently, America lifted sanctions that were imposed on Zimbabwe. That is the hand of the Jews. Sooner or later, the Jews will move their economy from South Africa to Zimbabwe …
• The United States has lifted sanctions against Zimbabwe after 20 years, meaning that Zimbabwe can now access loans from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to grow its economy.
• Good news for Zimbabwe. US sanctions have been lifted all together according to informants… What a time. I’m going there to invest.

The claim can also be seen here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Biden’s order did repeal the sanctions imposed in 2003, 2005 and 2008. But a new set of sanctions on individuals and companies was introduced at the same time.

And sanctions against the country of Zimbabwe have not been lifted.

Sanctions moved to different regime – and Zidera remains

On 4 March, the day Biden signed the executive order, the US treasury’s Ofac imposed fresh sanctions on 11 Zimbabwean individuals and three businesses for “involvement in corruption or serious human rights abuse”.

The new sanctions list includes president Emmerson Mnangagwa and his wife Auxillia Mnangagwa, businessperson Kudakwashe Tagwirei and his wife Sandra Mpunga, as well as vice-president Constantino Chiwenga and defence minister Oppah Muchinguri.

The sanctioned firms are Tagwirei and Mpunga’s Sakunda Holdings, its subsidiary Fossil Agro, and the linked company Fossil Contracting.

The new sanctions were quickly condemned by government officials in Zimbabwe.

Targeted Ofac sanctions on high-ranking Zimbabweans now fall under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, instead of presidential executive orders. Under the act, the US penalises foreign government officials for what it determines are human rights offences by freezing their US-held assets and barring them from entering the country.

More than this, the main thrust of US sanctions against Zimbabwe as a country, the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001, is still in place.

Known as Zidera or Zdera and amended in 2018, the act – among other things – prevents Zimbabwe from accessing funds from global financial institutions. These include the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank’s International Development Association and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

On 7 March US state department official David Gainer clarified Biden’s order:

Our policy toward Zimbabwe has not changed, but our sanction tools have. We continue to have serious concerns about human rights abuses and corruption. Key individuals … bear responsibility for these actions … With the Global Magnitsky programme, we’ll better be able to promote accountability for persons who engage in that conduct in Zimbabwe.

While the order removed one sanctions regime, it was replaced with another. And Zidera remains. US sanctions on Zimbabwe – the country – have not been lifted.

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Published by Africa Check on 28 March 2024

The post United States lifts sanctions on Zimbabwe? Not quite appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 12 MARCH 2024

“A Nigerian businessman based in South Africa was arrested for allegedly dealing in hard drugs,” reads the caption of a video circulating on social media since 24 February 2024.*

The 10-minute video shows an agitated and handcuffed man answering questions about drugs and money from people behind the camera.

The “Nigerian drug dealer” is a common stereotype in anti-migrant xenophobia in South Africa.

But does the video really show a Nigerian national based in South Africa after his arrest for dealing drugs?

Drug enforcement agency arrests nine ‘Liberian-based Nigerian nationals’

Small and almost illegible text at the top of the video reads:

A well-known spare part dealer (Nigerian National) that goes by the name ‘JAPAN’ from Old Clara Town Bushrod Island was allegedly caught with huge amounts of illicit drugs in his compound in the Sayon Town Community earlier today, Feb 21 2024.

The place names in the text – Clara Town, Sayon Town and Bushrod Island – all indicate that the video was shot in the West African country of Liberia, not South Africa.

Clara Town and Sayon Town are neighbourhoods on Bushrod Island just north of Liberia’s capital of Monrovia on the Atlantic Ocean coast. Clara Town is known for being the birthplace of professional football player and former Liberian president George Weah.

Bushrod Island includes the Freeport of Monrovia, Liberia’s largest seaport.

None of these places are in South Africa.

The video has the watermark of Eben TV Live, a community TV station based in Bushrod Island’s Logan Town.

The original video was posted on the Eben TV Live Facebook page on 22 February. Its description gives more details on the incident.*

These led us to a 22 February report by the New Dawn, a Liberian news website, headlined “LDEA nabs 9 Nigerian drug suspects”.

The report begins: “The Liberia Drugs Enforcement Agency (LDEA) has arrested nine Liberian-based Nigerian nationals and two Liberians suspected of running a drug cartel in Sayon Town on Bushrod Island.”

According to the report, the arrests came out of an LDEA sweep of Sayon Town the day before.

The man in the video can be seen in two photos in the New Dawn’s report. He’s one of the nine identified as “Liberian-based Nigerian nationals”.

The video was shot in Liberia, not South Africa. And the man in the video is based in Liberia, not South Africa.

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue, or if their posts were misused for disinformation.

Published by Africa Check on 15 March 2024

The post Video of man arrested in Liberian drug sweep doesn’t show ‘Nigerian based in South Africa’ appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 20 FEBRUARY 2024

In a tense semifinal that ran well into extra time after a 1-1 draw, Nigeria’s Super Eagles finally beat South Africa’s Bafana Bafana 4-2 on penalties in the 7 February 2024 semifinal of the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) football tournament.

Soon after, three photos appeared on social media with the claim they showed people in Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city, attacking Nigerians after the Super Eagles’ win.*

“Breaking News: South Africans Begin Attack On Nigerians In Johannesburg And Looting Of Their For Losing To Nigeria,” reads a typical caption.

“At least six Nigerian shops have been set on fire while others are been looted by South African anger moob for losing to Nigeria last night.”

The first photo shows a man with a crowd behind him kicking a burning object in a city street. The second shows a burning tyre and an angry crowd gesturing towards the camera. The third is a blurry photo of a car dealership in flames.

The claim can also be seen here, here, here and here.

Nigerian high commission warns of threats

On 6 February, the day before the match, the Nigerian high commission in South Africa issued a warning of “inflammatory online comments” and “veiled threats” of reprisals if Bafana Bafana lost to the Super Eagles.

It advised the “Nigerian community in South Africa” to be “watchful of their utterances, be mindful of where they choose to watch the match … and refrain from engaging in loud, riotous or provocative celebrations should the Super Eagles win the match”.

South Africa’s international relations department dismissed the warning as a “false alarm” that created “unnecessary tension between the citizens of South Africa and Nigerians living in or visiting South Africa”.

It said there was “no history of soccer hooliganism among South Africans” after the “many” matches between the two national teams.

But South Africa does have a long history of xenophobic violence against migrants from elsewhere on the continent, including Nigerians.

Do the photos show that violence did in fact erupt in Johannesburg after the Afcon semifinal?

Attack and counterattack – in 2019

Google reverse image searches reveal that all three photos are more than four years old.

The first and third appear in news reports on the September 2019 xenophobic attacks in Gauteng, a South African province that includes Johannesburg. Businesses thought to be owned by migrants were looted and set on fire.

The second photo was taken the same month in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, during retaliatory attacks on South African companies.

Both the first and second can be found on stock image sites.

The first is on Getty Images, credited to Agence France-Presse photographer Michele Spatari.

Its description reads: “A man kicks a burning piece of furniture during a riot in the Johannesburg suburb of Turffontein on September 2, 2019 as angry protesters loot alleged foreign-owned shops today in a new wave of violence targeting foreign nationals.”

The second photo can be found on AP Newsroom, the Associated Press stock media site.

Its description reads: “Protesters throw rocks at policemen during an attack on South African business, in Abuja, Nigeria, Wednesday Sept. 4, 2019. South African-owned businesses operating in Nigeria are being targeted with violence in retaliation for xenophobic attacks carried out against Africans working in South Africa.”

Malvern businesses set ablaze

The origin of the blurry third photo of a burning car dealership was more difficult to find. A larger version appears in early reports on the September 2019 violence – in Nigeria here, and in South Africa here, credited to “via WhatsApp”.

It’s said to show one of many businesses attacked during the night of 1 September 2019 on Jules Street in Malvern, a suburb in the east of Johannesburg.

Its caption in a 2 September report by Nigeria’s Vanguard newspaper reads: “One of the Auto Marts set ablaze by an angry mob on Sunday, Sept. 1, in Johannesburg, South Africa.”

The report says “witnesses living on Jules Street” described the mob as “very organised and well-coordinated in looting and burning of any shops/businesses suspected to be owned by foreign nationals”.

The burned banner on the dealership shows the address 161 Jules Street. Text on the left and the right indicate the business was called Salbro Auto.

We googled Salbro Auto. This led us to a 2 September 2019 article on TimesLive, headlined “‘I’m ashamed to be a South African’ – shop owner after Jeppe violence”.

It reads: “Tears flow as family members of Salbro Auto hopelessly walk through their car dealership which has been burnt to the ground. Nothing but burnt down frames of 40 cars, which were once worth millions, are left.”

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Published by Africa Check on 23 February 2024

The post South Africans attack Nigerians after 2024 Afcon semifinal loss? No, photos from 2019 appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 8 FEBRUARY 2024

A photo of a large rusted vehicle lying across a river is doing the rounds on social media with the claim it’s an “old school bus turned into a bridge in Zimbabwe”.*

The claim was posted by the anti-migrant X/Twitter account #PutSouthAfricansfirst on 24 January 2024. It’s since been reposted across Facebook and X here, here, here, here and here.

Zimbabwe shares a 200 kilometre border with South Africa’s northern Limpopo province.

The country and its people are often targets of xenophobia in South Africa. Over the years, this has flared into violence. Popular movements such as Put South Africans First and Operation Dudula oppose migration from elsewhere in Africa.

The claim repeats a harmful stereotype that Zimbabwe is falling apart, so poor – in this false example – it has to use buses for bridges. (In a counterclaim on X , the photo has been described as “some of the bridges in South Africa”.)

But not only is the vehicle not an “old school bus”, the photo was shot a hemisphere away from Zimbabwe.

‘Resourceful repurposing’ by Georgian engineers

A Google Lens search for the image’s source led to a post on the travel site TripAdvisor. This puts the photo’s location in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region of Georgia, a country on the border between eastern Europe and western Asia.

Social media posts from late 2023 describe the photo as showing an “old abandoned train wagon used as a bridge”.

Old abandoned train wagon used as a bridge. pic.twitter.com/jsJcjuvUIb

— Lars-Johan Larsson (@LarsJohanL) November 29, 2023

We googled “train carriage bridge Georgia”. This returned many other photos, of what is clearly the same bridge, on the stock image sites Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Alamy and Flickr. All say it crosses the Paravani river near the town of Akhalkalaki in southern Georgia.

The carriage bridge features in the 2017 book Abandoned Wrecks by Chris McNab, and in galleries of photos from the book on the CNN and Architectural Digest websites.

A 2018 review of Abandoned Wrecks gives a longer description:

Akhalkalaki, Georgia – Showing a resourceful repurposing, Georgian engineers have converted this old train carriage into a functional river bridge, each end of the carriage set on concrete plinths. Such arrangements are not uncommon – carriage bridges are also seen in India and other parts of the world.

The bridge, now a little worse for wear and covered in graffiti, can be seen on Google Maps and Google Street View.

It’s in Georgia, not Zimbabwe.

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Published by Africa Check on 14 February 2024

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