MARY ALEXANDER • 22 JULY 2024

Does the British monarch own all the land in England?

John Hlophe, the parliamentary leader of South Africa’s new opposition uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP), made the claim after being sworn in at the national assembly on 25 June. He was arguing for his party’s policy of land expropriation and nationalisation.

“The land in Africa can never be the subject of private ownership. The land belongs to the nation. It doesn’t form part of private ownership,” he told journalists.

He added: “And we are not alone in that regard. Look at the UK. The land in England, the land belongs to the queen. Everybody else has a 99-year lease.”

England is one of the countries of the United Kingdom, also known as Britain. The others are Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

By “the queen”, Hlophe meant the British monarch, currently king Charles III since the death of his mother, queen Elizabeth II, in 2022. The monarch is the UK’s head of state.

The election manifesto of Hlophe’s MKP lists eight “pillars” – things the party hopes to do. Its second pillar is to “expropriate all land without compensation, transferring ownership to the people under the state and traditional leaders”.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), another South African opposition party, has a similar stance on land.

‘They’re all on 99yr lease. Are they poor?’

The claim that the British monarch owns all the land in England – or in Britain as a whole – has been circulating on social media since before Hlophe’s press conference.

“The Queen of England owns Britain, Canada and Australia and the land in Britain belongs to her,” reads a 24 June post on Facebook.*

An X post reads:

I support the idea of gvmnt becoming a custodian of all land. If you have no use for the land, you must relinquish it to the state to distribute it to those who need to use it.

This is happening in economy jurisdictions that we admire. In England, the land belongs to the queen.

— Mduh (@ThisIsMduh) July 2, 2024

Other versions include:

• “I think the model the EFF is advocating for is similar to one used in England where all the land belongs to the Queen – in our case I guess it would belong to Government.”
• “English law […] states all land in England belongs to the Queen.”
• “In UK the King Charles owns all the land and everyone has 99 year leases and it works very well. No one complains.”
• “No one owns the land in England, it is owned by the King/Queen. They’re all on 99yr lease. Are they poor?”

Is any of this true?

The monarch is not the crown

A 2022 UK house of commons research briefing reads:

Land ownership in England and Wales is based on historical feudal principles. The Crown owns all land in England and Wales; people own estates in land either directly or indirectly from the Crown (for example, a freehold estate or a leasehold estate).

There are two important points here. First, “the crown” is not the same as the monarch. Second, a “freehold estate” is privately owned land.

Another briefing defines the crown:

The Crown encompasses both the monarch and the government. It is vested in the King, but in general its functions are exercised by Ministers of the Crown accountable to the UK Parliament or the three devolved legislatures.

The crown is equivalent to the state in other countries.

And the crown “owns” the land in the sense that it has sovereignty over the land, giving legal weight to private land ownership.

Freehold and leasehold land

In the UK, a freehold estate is land freely and privately owned. It does not belong to the monarch. Freehold land ownership has been a principle of British law for centuries.

“The term freehold property ownership refers to the ownership of both the land and the building on it for an indefinite period of time,” says one UK property expert.

In fact, the HM Land Registry, a government department created in 1862, exists to “register the ownership of land and property in England and Wales”.

King Charles himself privately owns an extensive portfolio of freehold property – but not “all the land”.

Leasehold property, by contrast, is owned only for a fixed period of time. It is leased from the landowner – also called the freeholder. Leases have no specific timeframe. They can be as short as a day or as long as 999 years.

Land is also privately owned in Scotland, where there are concerns about the small number of landowners who hold huge swathes of the country’s rural areas. Northern Ireland also has private land ownership.

The question of land ownership is complex. But the claim that the British monarch owns all the land in England, or the UK as a whole, is false.

* 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 13 August 2024

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MARY ALEXANDER • 26 April 2024
Published by Africa Check on 26 April 2024

“MOZAMBIQUE CITIZENS IMPORTED FROM THEIR HOMES TO COME AND VOTE FOR ANC IN UPCOMING MAY ELECTIONS,” reads the copied-and-pasted caption for a video going viral on WhatsApp and Facebook in South Africa in April 2024.*

It adds: “THEY ARE NOW STATIONED IN GAUTENG and Getting processed to have ‘VOTING CARDS’ ID CARDS BY A HOME AFFAIRS-CONTRACTED ‘AGENT’.”

South Africa is set to hold national and provincial elections on 29 May. The vote is likely to be game-changing, as opinion polls suggest the ruling African National Congress (ANC) may lose the parliamentary majority it has held since 1994.

Mozambique borders South Africa to the northeast. Migrants from the country – and elsewhere in Africa – have long been targets of anti-migrant sentiment and xenophobic violence in South Africa. Many migrants come to Gauteng province, the country’s economic centre.

The video begins with the cameraman questioning a man in a blue vest standing in a dusty yard. He is asked if he is an “agent”. The man shows the insignia on his vest, two logos that spell out CNE and STAE. He explains that he is registering people for voters’ cards.

The cameraman then heads off to a nearby building, muttering “This is out automatically of order.”

Inside the building we see people in similar blue vests at tables with laptops and other electronic equipment, and a crowd waiting in chairs.

The camera zooms in on a document being printed and then on a man cropping ID photos. The cameraman asks where he is from and he says Maputo, the capital of Mozambique.

The claim has been posted on Facebook dozens of times, including here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. It also appears on X and YouTube.

But does the video really show Mozambicans “imported” into South Africa to “vote for ANC” being “processed” for “voting cards ID cards”?

Voters’ card used in Mozambique, not South Africa

First, South Africa’s voter registration drive ended on 23 February, the day the election date was announced.

Extensive searches, including reverse image searches of frames from the video, could find no online evidence of the footage earlier than 17 April. It would be impossible for the video to show “imported” Mozambicans being “processed” to vote in South Africa’s elections as the voters’ roll was closed almost two months before.

Second, voting in South Africa requires a green barcoded ID book, smart-card ID or temporary ID certificate. The country does not have a separate voters’ card.

A country that does is Mozambique.

The CNE and STAE logos on the man in the video’s blue vest belong to Mozambique’s Comissão Nacional de Eleições (Portuguese for national electoral commission) and Secretariado Técnico de Administração Eleitoral (technical secretariat for election management). STAE is responsible for voter registration under the supervision of CNE.

Mozambique is set to hold national, provincial and presidential elections on 9 October.

On 30 March, CNE-STAE launched a cross-border voter registration drive with the aim of registering 200,000 Mozambican citizens living in South Africa. The drive focuses on the provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga, which border Mozambique, as well as Gauteng.

By 21 April, some 136,000 Mozambicans in South Africa had been registered to vote in their country’s 9 October elections. The process ends on 28 April.

The video shows a CNE-STAE registration station issuing Mozambican voters’ cards to Mozambicans in South Africa.

Laxton voter registration kit not used in South Africa

And the video itself offers two more bits of evidence that the claim is false.

The electronic equipment (at the 1:33 minute mark) are mobile voter registration kits supplied to CNE-STAE by the China-based Laxton Group, which specialises in election and identity technology. Photos of the kit can also be seen here and here.

The Laxton kit is not used to register voters for South African elections.

The document being printed (at the 1:45 minute mark) is headed “República de Moçambique, Comissão Nacional de Eleições, Secretariado Técnico de Administração Eleitoral.” It includes the emblem and flag of Mozambique. And although larger, it resembles the Mozambican voters’ card.

Even Facebook users spreading the claim admit it is false. One of the earliest instances, posted on 18 April, begins with the usual “MOZAMBIQUE CITIZENS IMPORTED FROM THEIR HOMES …”

But it ends with an equally uppercased: “I DON’T CAR IF IT’S TO VOTE IN MOZAMBIQUE IN OCTOBER, WHY IS SOUTH AFRICA INVOLVED?”

* Some claims posted on Facebook and Instagram may have been deleted by users after being rated via Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program.

The post No, migrants registering for Mozambique’s 2024 elections – not ‘imported’ to vote for South Africa’s ANC appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 9 APRIL 2024
Published by Africa Check on 19 April 2024

A photo of an open-air toilet on the verge of a road running through the shacks of an informal settlement is doing the rounds on social media with the claim it’s the work of South Africa’s governing African National Congress (ANC).*

The toilet has no walls, roof or door. The photo shows a smiling woman looking at it.

A common caption reads: “That’s what we call Public Toilets, Big Up ANC iyasebenza.” In isiXhosa and isiZulu, “iyasebenza” can be translated as “it works” or “it is working”.

South Africa is set to hold national and provincial elections on 29 May 2024. The claim started circulating online in late February.

Opinion polls suggest the vote may be the most pivotal in 30 years, with the ANC forecast to lose the parliamentary majority it has held since 1994.

The party’s main opposition are the Democratic Alliance, the Economic Freedom Fighters and, possibly, the newcomer uMkhonto weSizwe Party, backed by popular former ANC president Jacob Zuma.

The supply of basic services such as sanitation (toilets and sewage systems) – as well as roads, housing, electricity, clean water and rubbish removal – is a hot political issue in South Africa.

Regular power blackouts known as loadshedding have plagued the country for years, and over 100 major protests against poor service delivery have erupted every year since 2009.

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

But does the photo really show an unenclosed public toilet erected by the ANC?

Open toilets in City of Cape Town informal settlements

A reverse image search reveals that the photo has been online since at least January 2010 – more than 14 years ago.

It appears in a blog post headlined: “Khayelitsha open-air toilet ‘deal’ is ludicrous!” Its caption reads: “Cllr June Frans stands next to one of the open air toilets in Khayelitsha. Their position right next to the road is very clear.”

Khayelitsha is a large township in the Western Cape province. It’s part of the City of Cape Town municipality, which includes Cape Town itself as well as surrounding towns and townships.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has governed the City of Cape Town since 2006.

The photo shows an open public toilet the DA municipal council installed in the Makhaza informal settlement of Khayelitsha in 2009.

It was one of 1,316 public toilets the DA set up in informal settlements that year, on condition that the community would build structures around them. Residents enclosed 1,265 of the toilets, leaving 51 in the open.

In 2010 the ANC took the DA to court, saying the toilets violated residents’ constitutional right to dignity. The Western Cape high court ruled in the ANC’s favour and ordered the DA to enclose the toilets.

During the case the DA claimed that when the ANC controlled the municipality from 2000 to 2005, over 4,000 open public toilets had been installed with the same condition that they be covered by residents.

In 2011 the Social Justice Coalition, which works in townships across the municipality, reported that in Khayelitsha, in some cases, “as many as 500 people are expected to share one chemical toilet”.

Nonetheless, census data shows that the Western Cape has the highest percentage of households with access to a flushing toilet. The province is governed by the DA. South Africa’s eight other provinces are under the ANC.

According to the 2022 census, 93.9% of Western Cape households have a flushing toilet, with Gauteng next at 89.7%. The lowest share is in Limpopo (35.2%) followed by Mpumalanga (54.9%).

* Some claims posted on Facebook and Instagram may have been deleted by users after they were rated via Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program.

The post Open public toilet installed by South Africa’s ruling African National Congress? No, photo snapped in opposition-controlled Cape Town in 2010 appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 28 MARCH 2024

Has former US president Donald Trump endorsed uMkhonto weSizwe, South Africa’s newest political party? A low-res video circulating on social media since early March 2024 indicates he has.*

In the clip, Trump appears to say:

Greetings. All South Africans, my name is president Donald Trump. I urge all South Africans to vote for uMkhonto weSizwe May 29th. The African National Congress of Cyril Ramaphosa has failed all South Africans. With this new backed party by president Jacob Zuma, all South Africans will matter. Vote uM …

It then cuts out.

South Africans are set to vote on 29 May in what are slated to be the country’s most pivotal elections in 30 years. Opinion polls suggest the ruling African National Congress (ANC) could lose the parliamentary majority it has held since 1994.

The new uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party takes its name – “spear of the nation” in isiZulu – from the ANC’s military wing during the struggle against apartheid. MK’s profile was boosted when former ANC president Jacob Zuma backed the party and began campaigning on its behalf.

The ANC recently lost a court bid to have the electoral commission’s registration of MK declared invalid. It is currently in another legal battle over who owns the uMkhonto weSizwe name and logo.

One opinion poll suggests that in KwaZulu-Natal, Zuma’s home province, the ANC could lose half its votes to MK in the upcoming elections.

But does the video really show Trump urging South Africans to vote for MK?

Another fake made with Parrot AI

First off, a closer look at the video clearly shows that the audio doesn’t match the movement of Trump’s lips.

Africa Check took screenshots of the video and ran them through a reverse image search. This revealed that the viral clip was taken from a 2017 interview with Trump by the US broadcaster NBC News. The MK party was registered in September 2023.

Trump’s tie, the angle of his face and the flag pin on his jacket are all the same. The background shows the same US presidential flag positioned to his left.

In the 13-minute NBC video, Trump says nothing about uMkhonto weSizwe. The viral video is fake.

It’s likely it was created by Parrot AI, which sells itself as a “celebrity voice generator”.

Africa Check recently debunked another fake, using the same NBC clip, in which Trump appears to berate Nigerians for criticising president Bola Tinubu. That video includes the Parrot AI logo.

* Some claims posted on Facebook and Instagram may have been deleted by users after being rated via Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program.

Published by Africa Check on 11 April 2024

The post Trump backs South Africa’s uMkhonto weSizwe Party? No, video dubbed appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 18 MARCH 2024

A viral graphic on social media claims that eight major South African opposition parties – identified by their logos – are “standing with Israel”.*

The parties are:

• The Democratic Alliance (DA)
• ActionSA
• The Patriotic Alliance (PA)
• Vryheidsfront Plus / Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus)
• The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP)
• The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP)
• The Congress of the People (Cope)
• Build One South Africa (Bosa)

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

Israel lies between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea in the Middle East. It’s the world’s only Jewish state. The territory also includes the largely Muslim Palestine, made up of the West Bank west of the Jordan and the Gaza Strip east of the Mediterranean.

Most United Nations countries – 139 of 193 – recognise Palestine as a state.

In December 2023 South Africa’s government – led by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) – took to the World Court to accuse Israel of genocide in its war on Gaza. The war began after the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel from Gaza. Hamas has controlled the strip since 2007.

The Israel-Gaza war has so far killed a reported 31,490 Palestinians in Gaza and forced three-quarters of its population to flee their homes. More than 1,400 Israelis have been killed in both territories.

South Africa is set to hold national and provincial elections on 29 May 2024. Opinion polls suggest it could be the most closely run race in 30 years. The ANC may lose the parliamentary majority it has held since South Africa’s first democratic vote, in 1994.

In the 2021 local government elections the ANC won 47.51% of the national vote. Seven of the eight parties in the graphic (except Bosa, established in 2022) won a combined 32.06%.

Do eight South African political parties, seven of them supported by almost a third of the electorate in 2021, say they “stand with Israel”?

Parties’ response to Hamas attack

The graphic first appeared online in the week after the 7 October Hamas attack and has continued to circulate since. In the days after the atttack, only five of the eight parties issued official statements.

Of the five, four –ActionSA, the ACDP, DA and FF Plus – condemned Hamas. ActionSA and the DA also called for peace between Israel and Palestine.

The IFP stopped short of condemnation, only calling on Hamas “to join the peace process”. The ANC’s response was similar, although it also said the attack was “unsurprising” and that it “stands with the people of occupied Palestine”.

The remaining three – the PA, Cope and Bosa – have been vague.

The PA appears to have no stance on the conflict.

Cope has only referred to it three times on X, in nebulous posts that indicate support for South Africa’s genocide charge against Israel. Cope leader Mosiuoa Lekota also welcomed the World Court’s ruling that Israel must prevent genocide in Gaza. And in November, the party distanced itself from an official who said Cope “will stand with Israel”.

Bosa’s only reference to the war is a 29 January 2024 statement, posted on X, that a “two-state solution is the pathway to peace in Israel-Palestine conflict”.

The two-state solution

The two-state solution, in its broadest sense, proposes an end to the conflict by recognising the right of both Israel and Palestine to exist between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The idea is that 1967 borders should be recognised, based on UN resolutions 242 and 338.

The solution has been rejected by Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu.

The ANC has repeatedly said it supports the two-state solution “in terms of the 1967 borders”.

The DA’s stance is almost identical, saying it “continues to support a viable and sustainable two-state solution based on United Nations Security Council resolutions 242 and 338”.

In January the party distanced itself from Netanyahu’s declaration that there would be no Palestinian state at the end of the war.

The two-state solution is also supported by the FF Plus (here), the IFP (here and here), ACDP (here) and Bosa (here).

Condemning Hamas for the 7 October attack does not automatically mean a party “stands with Israel”. In fact, South Africa’s ANC-led government itself condemned the attack in its genocide case against Israel.

We found that most of the eight parties have said relatively little, if anything, about the Israel-Gaza war. They’ve said more about local issues.

The only parties that could be considered, by their public statements, to be “standing with Israel” are the FF Plus (here and here) and the ACDP (here).

* 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 1 March 2024.

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MARY ALEXANDER • 5 MARCH 2024

South Africans are set to vote on 29 May 2024 in what could be the country’s most game-changing elections in 30 years. Polls suggest the ruling African National Congress (ANC) may lose the majority it has held since 1994.

As campaign fever rises, an old rumour has surfaced on social media.*

It claims that if a voter doesn’t cast their ballot, that vote automatically goes to the ANC – or, more generally, the “ruling party”.

The rumour has many versions, all with the same basic claim:

• If you were a voter before then suddenly stopped voting , the ruling party which happens to be the current government automatically counts your vote towards theirs regardless of whether or not you voted. this is somehow one of their corrupt tendencies/system which is why people are encouraged to vote.
• I am also here to remind you that if you do not vote, your vote automatically goes to the ruling party which is ANC.
• We as young people don’t like to go and vote, one thing some of us aren’t aware of is, if we don’t our votes automatically goes to the ruling party.
• In case you didn’t know (I also didn’t know and it took me a while to grasp it), if you’re registered to vote but you do NOT vote, apparently that vote automatically goes to the ruling party.. just saying!
• Even if you are registered to vote, if you decide not to vote on the elections day, your vote will automatically fall under ANC. Simply because ANC is the ruling party.

Elections for South Africa’s national parliament and nine provincial governments are held every five years. The previous elections in 2019 saw support for the ANC drop to 57.5% of the national vote, its lowest outcome yet.

The main opposition parties are the Democratic Alliance, which won 20.8% of the vote in 2019, and the Economic Freedom Fighters, which scored 10.8%.

All South African citizens aged 18 and over are eligible to vote. But they first have to register with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), which adds their details to the voter’s roll.

The claim that votes not cast in the 2024 elections will “automatically” go to the ruling party can also be seen here, here, here, here, here, here and here. But is it true?

‘Why would they bother if we vote or not?’

South Africa’s Electoral Act of 1998 sets out how votes are counted in elections. There’s no mention in the act or any of its amendments that if a registered voter doesn’t vote, that vote automatically goes to the ruling party.

The IEC keeps an online database of election statistics going back to 1994. One of those stats is voter turnout, or the number of registered voters who actually turned up at the polls on election day.

In 2019 voter turnout was 66.05%. This means that out of 26,756,649 registered voters, 17,672,851 cast their vote (including 235,472 spoiled ballots). It also means that 9,083,798 voters did not vote.

These 9 million non-votes did not “go to” the ANC.

The ruling party received 10,026,475 votes, or 57.5% of all valid votes (excluding spoiled ballots), giving it 230 of the 400 seats in parliament.

If the 9 million non-voting ballots were then credited to the ANC its share would have risen to an impossible 109.59% of all valid votes. And if its total was made up of those 9 million non-votes then only 5.4% of valid votes were actually cast for the ANC – highly unlikely, given the former liberation movement’s continued (if waning) popularity.

‘There is absolutely no truth to the rumour’ – electoral commission

Some social media users make a good argument against the claim.

“If it’s true why would they [the ANC] even bother if we vote or not, because us not voting would automatically make sure that they remain in power right? So why would they encourage us?”

In other words, if the claim were true it would be in the ANC’s interest if voters stayed away from the polls. Yet the party campaigns actively and has urged people to go out and vote.

The rumour is more than a decade old, doing the rounds on social media since at least South Africa’s 2011 municipal elections. It cropped up again during national elections in 2014 (here and here) and 2019 (here and here).

In 2019 it caught the attention of the IEC, which took to X (then Twitter) to debunk it.

“There is absolutely no truth to the rumour that if you don’t vote your vote will go to the ruling (or any other) party,” the commission tweeted. “Only valid votes cast in an election are counted in the result. Thanks for checking.”

There is absolutely no truth to the rumour that if you don’t vote your vote will go to the ruling (or any other) party. Only valid votes cast in an election are counted in the result. Thanks for checking.

— IEC South Africa (@IECSouthAfrica) May 8, 2019

It’s not true that if you don’t vote, your vote automatically goes to the ruling party.

The rumour may come from an argument that people who choose not to vote – for whatever reason – somehow benefit the ruling party. But even that argument has holes in it. There is no saying which party stayaway voters would have voted for if they had cast their ballots.

* 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 8 March 2024

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MARY ALEXANDER • 14 FEBRUARY 2024

A video of a huge crowd in green and black marching down a long avenue is doing the rounds online with the claim they are supporters of a new contender in South African politics, the uMkhonto weSizwe Party.*

The party takes its name from the military wing of the African National Congress (ANC) during the struggle against apartheid. MK for short, uMkhonto weSizwe means “spear of the nation” in isiZulu.

The struggle ended with South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994, won by the ANC. It’s since been re-elected every five years. But with the country set to vote again in 2024, opinion polls suggest it may lose its majority for the first time.

On 24 January, the video was posted on TikTok with the words “ANC is out. Viva MK party.”

A week or so later it appeared on X/Twitter with the caption “MK IS THE BIGGEST POLITICAL PARTY IN SA CURRENTLY!!!” The post has been viewed more than 91,600 times so far.

It was also uploaded, with the same caption, on YouTube, where it’s had more than 28,000 views. The YouTube video has in turn been posted across Facebook – here, here, here, here and here.

The MK Party was registered with South Africa’s elections commission in September 2023. Debate about who actually owned the name “uMkhonto weSizwe” soon followed.

The confusion continued into December when Jacob Zuma, president of the ANC government from 2009 to 2018, endorsed the MK Party and began to campaign on its behalf. He was quickly expelled from the ANC.

Debate has extended to the party’s logo, which uses a slightly modified version of the original MK emblem of a warrior holding a shield and brandishing a spear, in black, set against a green background.

But does the clip really show MK Party supporters?

Fuerza del Pueblo march on Workers’ Day

The video’s watermark shows it comes from the TikTok account @rolandomarte81, where it was posted on 11 November 2023.

Other videos on the account suggest it’s based in the Dominican Republic, a Spanish-speaking Caribbean country east of Central America on the island of Hispaniola, which it shares with Haiti.

A Google Lens reverse image search of the first frame of the video led us to another TikTok account from the Dominican Republic. It also brought up a post on X with a longer version of the clip.

Here it’s described as being shot on 1 May 2023 in San Ignacio de Sabaneta, a city in the northwest of the Dominican Republic.

La lucha por la rebaja en los precios de los alimentos y combustibles; más que ideología política, es justicia social. ¡Únete a la lucha por una sociedad más justa e igualitaria! @LeonelFernandez@FPComunica#MarchaTrabajadoresFP#MarchaFP #FuerzadelPueblo pic.twitter.com/v4aXnO8V6D

— Magdalena Valerio (@Magdale34645821) May 1, 2023

The post’s mentions include Leonel Fernández, a former president of the Dominican Republic, and his opposition Fuerza del Pueblo (“power of the people”) political party.

It also includes the hashtag #MarchaTrabajadoresFP, which leads to numerous X posts about a 2023 Fuerza del Pueblo march held on 1 May – recognised as May Day, Labour Day and International Workers’ Day – in the Dominican Republic. In Spanish, “marcha” means “march” and “trabajadores” means “workers”.

Many of the posts under the #MarchaTrabajadoresFP hashtag include other videos that clearly show the same scene in the viral clip.

It was shot in the Dominican Republic, not South Africa. The people in green and black are supporters of Fuerza del Pueblo, not the uMkhonto weSizwe Party.

Published by Africa Check on 16 February 2024

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

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