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A weekly guide to spotting, understanding and stopping viral misinformation

Alarmist messages claim that South Africa's ANC party plans to resettle about 120,000 Muslim refugees in Jeffreys Bay and along the Garden Route, turning popular tourist areas into “refugee camps”.

📊 Why the numbers alone give it away

• One way to spot misinformation is to sanity-check the figures. According to the UN, fewer than 70,000 refugees live in South Africa in total.
• Jeffreys Bay falls within the Kouga municipality, which has just over 100,000 residents.
• For the claim to be true, South Africa's refugee population would have to almost double, placing all of them in one small coastal municipality - an implausible scenario.

🎥 How a harmless video was misused

Many posts point to a video as “proof”. But the video shows mufti Yusuf Moosagie, a South African theologian, visiting a mosque in Jeffreys Bay.

• He is not a refugee.
• The video does not mention refugees at all.
• It was filmed to share his excitement about a new mosque in a town that previously had no Muslim place of worship.
• The video was later deliberately misrepresented to support a false narrative.

⚠️ More than just misinformation

This claim didn’t spread because it was believable — it spread because it played on fear, prejudice and Islamophobia. Many versions of the message:

• Label Muslims as “terrorists”
• Warn of an impending “war”
• Echo white supremacist conspiracy theories like the so-called “great replacement”
• Use dehumanising language that can incite hatred or violence

🧠 Why this matters

False claims like this don’t just mislead. They:

• Turn ordinary communities into targets
• Fuel suspicion and hostility toward religious minorities
• Encourage emotional sharing without checking facts

✅ The takeaway

• Before forwarding alarming messages, pause and ask:
• Does this come from an official source?
• Do the numbers make sense?
• Is fear being used to push the message?

Johannesburg- or Cape Town-based youth-led orgs: join Africa Check and the UNESCO Regional Office for Southern Africa to tackle harmful content while protecting free expression.

Apply: africanfactcheckers@gmail.com
Deadline: 23 Jan 2026

Let’s promote accurate info and safe online spaces together.

From crime and scams to health and AI, we’ve fact-checked it all. Which topics sparked the most buzz — and how do they compare globally? Discover the trends in our monthly tracker.

In 2025, we fact-checked 900+ social media claims in South Africa, mainly on health (often home remedies) and scams (particularly job or learnership offers).

On our WhatsApp line, claims about crime and justice (robbery, kidnapping, drug hoaxes) made up 27% of all claims submitted for verification by our subscribers, followed by scams at 18%.

How does this relate to global trends?

In 2025, global market research firm Ipsos found that South Africans were most worried about unemployment, crime and violence, political corruption and poverty and inequality. 

The top two concerns, unemployment at 66%, and crime and violence at 54%, mirror the scams and hoaxes our readers report, like fake job offers and robbery or drug-related alerts. 

Who checks the facts? "Behind the Facts" interviews the fact-checkers fighting misinformation.

A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, despite being widely shared.  

FALSE: Posts circulating on Facebook claim that a South African “doctor” recommends a mixture of Jameson whiskey and garlic to cure HIV/Aids. There is no such doctor, and there is still no cure for the potentially fatal disease.

FALSE:A viral post falsely claims that a dangerous violin spider is invading South African homes. The claim relies on a misleading image and revives a "warning" we debunked years ago. 

FALSE: Several posts claim so-called “seismic waves cards” from earthquakes in Myanmar, Thailand, or elsewhere can hack your phone in 10 seconds. This is false — we debunked it years ago. The country or event often changes, but the message is simply engagement bait. 

SCAM: FNB, one of South Africa’s largest banks, is not offering learnerships for 2026 through unverified links circulating on social media. For legitimate opportunities, follow the bank’s official website and social media channels. 

SCAM: An online message claims that Checkers, a South African supermarket chain, is offering “gifts” through a dodgy link to celebrate its 70th anniversary. The message is a scam.

Kenya 🇰🇪

FALSE: No, Kenyan president William Ruto has not confessed to killing people. A viral video making the claim was generated using AI.

FALSE: An image on social media in Kenya appears to show Francis Atwoli, the secretary general of Kenya’s Central Organization of Trade Unions, gifting his nephew a car. However, the image has been digitally altered.

FAKE: Digital new-style graphics circulating online claime that Murang’a county received funds that were likely misappropriated. The graphics are false.

Nigeria 🇳🇬

FALSE: Several posts on social media claim that the Akwa Ibom state house of assembly in Nigeria is considering a bill to criminalise sexual relationships between married men and unmarried women. This is false; no such bill exists.

FALSE: While defections are common in Nigerian politics, especially around election periods, senator Seriake Dickson has dismissed allegations that he intends to abandon the opposition Peoples Democratic Party for yet another opposition party.

SCAM: Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission has warned that recruitment of ad hoc is conducted only through its official portal. A link circulating on social media leads to a fake website and should be ignored.

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Your weekly dose of facts in newsletter form is created by Laura Kapelari (@laurakapelari). It is edited by Lee Mwiti (@LMAfrican) and Cayley Clifford (@cayleyclifford).