MARY ALEXANDER • 22 July 2024

“That Limpopo explosion that took place today is crazy,” reads the caption of a video circulating on social media in South Africa. “Hope everyone who was trying to help survived.”*

The 12-second clip shows a tanker truck burning on the side of a road. It then explodes and flames cover the screen. The rest of the video is the camera tumbling to capture random images as someone cries out.

Limpopo is South Africa’s northernmost province, on the border with Zimbabwe. Some captions put the video’s location as “between Louis Trichardt and Tshakuma”, meaning Tshakhuma, two settlements close to the border.

Others blame South African authorities.

“Why are people of this calibre given responsibility that is clearly beyond them?” one caption reads. “If this is ‘equality’ or ‘equity’ is it is also murder and destruction. It threatens us all in so many ways, but we can’t change the nature of the beast or its privileges.”

But does the video really show a “crazy” explosion in South Africa’s Limpopo province?

Road markings not from South Africa

The viral claim most likely began with a 4 July post by a verified X account.

But in the comments, other X users were quick to call wanya: “You can see Those road markings are not for South African roads.”

Wanya. You can see Those road markings are not for South African roads pic.twitter.com/utJ2HwdD0D

— Schwarzenegger Chauke (@eliotchauke1) July 4, 2024

Another commented: “This is a Propane explosion that happened on the BR-010 near the Paragominas Palace Hotel in Brazil.”

This is a Propane explosion that happened on the BR-010 near the Paragominas Palace Hotel in Brazil. https://t.co/WZsBDMzkGf

— █████ (@SupaJacks) July 4, 2024

The comment includes a link to a Portuguese-language news article that includes the video. Brazil is a country in South America. Its official language is Portuguese.

A machine translation of the headline reads: “Tanker truck explodes after accident on highway in Pará; videos show moment.”

According to the article, the tanker exploded after an accident on a highway between the municipalities of Paragominas and Ulianópolis in Brazil’s northern state of Pará. Three people were injured. The accident was on 3 July, the day before the viral claim popped up online.

A Google search using the keywords “tanker explosion Pará Brazil” led to several other news reports on the incident, all placing it in the South American country.

There have been no news reports of a recent tanker explosion in South Africa’s Limpopo.

EU law threatens X monetisation

One of the comments on the original X post suggests that the false claim is simply to attract attention: “atleast you’ll get the views! Limpopo is Brazil this today?”

atleast you’ll get the views! Limpopo is Brazil this today?

— Dolby wa Moroka(Double Doli) (@DollyBy2) July 4, 2024

Since Elon Musk bought X (then Twitter) in 2022, users have been able to earn money on the platform through subscriptions and advertising. But they have to be verified users, and this monetisation requires high engagement with their posts – views and comments.

There have been concerns that monetisation feeds sensationalist disinformation on the platform.

In October 2023 Musk threatened to demonetise X creators who posted false information. “Any posts that are corrected by Community Notes become ineligible for revenue share,” he posted.

This came after the European Union challenged Musk to clamp down on the site’s false content, illegal under the EU’s Digital Services Act.

The act aims to ensure a “safe, predictable and trusted online environment, addressing the dissemination of illegal content online and the societal risks that the dissemination of disinformation or other content may generate”.

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

Report published by Africa Check on 13 August 2024

The post ‘Crazy’ tanker truck explosion in South Africa? No, video from Brazil appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 7 FEBRUARY 2024

Warning: This report fact-checks a violent and distressing video.

A shocking video of two men whipping and clubbing a third man – bruised and bloody, crouched in the dirt and naked except for his grey underwear – is circulating online with the claim it was filmed in South Africa.*

A common caption reads: “South Africa – More disturbing footage from the racist pro Hamas country as we see a white farmer being viciously assaulted with weapons by savages linked to Julius Malema´s EFF.”

EFF is the Economic Freedom Fighters, a political party led by Julius Malema. South Africa is set to hold elections in 2024. The claim first appeared on social media in early January.

Hamas controls the Gaza Strip in the Middle East, a part of Palestine mostly bordered by Israel. The war between the two, raging since Hamas’s deadly 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, had by 5 February 2024 killed a reported 27,478 Palestinians in Gaza and more than 1,400 Israelis in both territories.

In late December 2023 South Africa took to the International Court of Justice to charge Israel with genocide for its conduct of the war inside Gaza. This has led to counter-accusations on social media that there is an ongoing genocide of white people in South Africa.

The myth of white genocide in South Africa – particularly of white farmers – has been repeatedly debunked over many years.

The video’s other captions include:

• This year general elections will be held in South Africa and the fate of 4.8 million of white citizens will be sealed. Let’s hope they choose wisely.
• This is what they are doing to White Farmers in South Africa.
• A Boer farmer in South Africa is being attacked by black South Africans. White farmers face daily attacks, but the media doesn’t cover it. #SouthAfrica #Apartheid #Genocide
• A South African Boer farmer being beaten by black South Africans. The white farmers are being targeted daily with no media coverage.

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

But the video shows a real hate crime, filmed four years ago on a different continent.

Suspect charged with Brazil’s crime of homophobia in 2020

Africa Check googled phrases from the video’s captions, such as “boer farmer attacked by black South Africans”, with the results limited to January 2024.

This led us to comments on a tweet from the X/Twitter account @Migrants5O73250. The account appears to have repeated the claim, but has been suspended for violating the X Rules.

But the comments remain. One reads: “And that white farmer (who is actually a professor) was beaten by South Africans in Brazil where he lives? Cause his aggressor was sentenced in Brazil and it happened in Brazil. Almost as if you were lying.”

And that white farmer (who is actually a professor) was beaten by South Africans in Brazil where he lives?

Cause his aggressor was sentenced in Brazil and it happened in Brazil.

Almost as if you were lying. https://t.co/MCP1XIANto

— The G (@NotVanVeen) January 19, 2024

It links to a Brazilian news article dated 18 February 2020. A machine translation of the Portuguese headline reads: “After being recorded performing oral sex in a public square, a teacher is brutally beaten in Serra Branca.”

Serra Branca is a city in Paraíba, a northeastern state in the South American country of Brazil.

Photos in the article show the victim after he was rescued by police. His appearance, bruising and wounds, as well as his grey underwear and the dirt he lies in, all indicate he is the man assaulted in the viral video.

He was also interviewed from his hospital bed in a news segment uploaded on YouTube. It clearly shows the same man.

The victim said four people were involved in the attack. One suspect was arrested and charged with the crimes of torture, bodily harm and homophobia.

Homophobia – specifically violence against LGBTQ+ people because of their sexual orientation – is a crime in Brazil.

The attack was widely reported by Brazilian media in February 2020, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

All evidence points to the attack being in Brazil in 2020, not in South Africa in 2024.

And despite what some captions claim about the media, if the video did show an assault on a white farmer in South Africa it would have been front page news. But there have been no credible reports of such an attack.

* 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 13 February 2024

The post White farmer assaulted by EFF ‘savages’ in South Africa? No, video of homophobic attack in Brazil appeared first on South Africa Gateway.