Pascal Arogorn Ibe
Introduction
Xenophobia has long been an issue in South Africa and has been accompanied by occasional outbursts of deadly violence.
Xenophobia is the deep-seated fear, hatred, or prejudice against strangers or foreign nationals, often manifesting as discrimination, social exclusion, or violence. Historically, it has been used to protect dominant group power, scapegoat outsiders for economic crises, or enforce racial hierarchies. It is a persistent global issue fueled by political manipulation and perceived competition for resources.
There have been many related incidents, but in recent years, reports of harassment of immigrant traders in Soweto and Johannesburg by a group dubbed “Operation Dudula” (meaning: “to push” in isiZulu) began emerging in mid-January 2022.
This was preceded by a social media campaign in June 2020 calling for action against immigrants under the Operation Dudula banner.
Just last week, video clips were shared online showing vigilante groups attacking and confronting people they believed were in South Africa illegally – in one of them they challenge a Ghanaian man over his status.
In the video, a group of South Africans questions a Ghanaian man. The group demands to see the man’s documents, and even when he produces them, they question their authenticity, before telling him to go and “fix your country”.
In related clips which also surfaced online this week, some South African citizens were involved in violent protests, demanding that migrants leave their country immediately.
Claim
To depict a related video, an X user, Noni Edozie, posted a similar clip of South Africans shooting at protesters.
The video was captioned, “Video of Black South Africans running from white people in their own land.”
Although, the X user did not state if the video was recent or not, comments under the post suggested that many people thought that the clip was from the ongoing chaos in the country.
For instance, an X user who commented on the post, said: “Those black South Africans deserve more than that…have not seen white South Africa protesting that foreigners should go..only lazy black South Africa doing that…now you can’t fight white people in your own country…but you can be very strong to fight black foreigners to go.
Verification
A screenshot of the beginning of the video shared by the X user, was taken and checked on Google Image Reverse Search.
The results indicated that the video was from a different incident in July 2021.
Checking further, news outlets in South Africa reported that a wave of rioting, looting, and violence tore across South Africa after former president Jacob Zuma was jailed, with mobs setting fire to and ransacking every storefront in sight.
During the protest in 2021, the United Nations expressed its “concern” over the demonstrations and riots and called on protesters “not to resort to violence”.
South African police said they are investigating the deaths of at least six people during the protests, in which nearly 220 people were also arrested, while the government approved the deployment of the military to try to contain the demonstrations.
See a similar of this report here.
Verdict
The video, which was recycled to depict a recent protest in South Africa, is MISLEADING. The video was from a different protest after the imprisonment of former President Zuma.
Credit: FACTWATCH Nigeria
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