Africa Check

European countries have not banned travel from South Africa – old clip repurposed out of context

IN SHORT: Viral posts are claiming that European countries have banned travel from South Africa in response to anti-migrant action, using a clip of president Cyril Ramaphosa as evidence. But as of ...
Africa Check

EXPLAINER: International migrants, jobs and crime in South Africa: What do the numbers show?

Amid a surge in anti-migrant sentiment, we test three common narratives driving South Africa’s migration debate against the ...
Africa Check

Africa's premier information integrity summit returns to Johannesburg in October 2026

JOHANNESBURG, 05 June 2026. The fifth edition of the Africa Facts Summit will take place on 21 - 22 October 2026 in Johannesburg, South Africa - bringing together fact-checkers, journalists, ...
Africa Check

From presidential farm robbery to impeachment enquiry: a moving timeline of Ramaphosa's Phala Phala scandal

What has become known as the Phala Phala scandal has followed South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa through his second term in office, drawing in some of South Africa's most powerful institutions ...
Africa Check

No need to fear the perfume seller – 1990s hoax about fainting after sniffing perfume still not backed by evidence

IN SHORT: A hoax message with its origins in 1990s email chain letters has once again resurfaced. Social media posts describe horror stories of women fainting and being robbed after sniffing perfume ...
Africa Check

EXPLAINER: How much South African MPs earn and what they do for it

Many would agree that the country’s lawmakers are handsomely paid. We take a closer look at their pay structure and what they actually do. Published on 30 January 2026 South Africa’s members of ...
Africa Check

Viral pic doesn’t show transformed Johannesburg street after clothing market shut down by police in October 2025

IN SHORT: Photos circulating on South African social media claim to show a Johannesburg city street before and after “foreigners” were removed from it. But the image used to show the transformed ...
Africa Check

Is Cape Town South Africa's second most dangerous city? Here's what the numbers show

There’s no denying that murder rates in South Africa are high. But two bold claims published by the widely read Guardian newspaper still caught our attention. The newspaper said that South Africa’s ...
Africa Check

That viral WhatsApp warning is wrong – but the app does have privacy concerns

In April 2025, messaging platform WhatsApp introduced a new feature called “advanced chat privacy”. According to the company, it aims to help users “prevent others from taking content outside of ...
Africa Check

FACTSHEET: From VAT to income tax: how Nigeria’s new tax rules affect you

In June 2025, president Bola Tinubu signed four new tax reform bills into law, bringing big changes to how taxes are managed in Nigeria. After the signing, Zacch Adedeji, the executive chairperson of ...
Africa Check

‘Death, death, death’: setting the record straight on Trump’s South Africa farm murder spectacle

South African billionaire Johann Rupert, US president Donald Trump (May 2025) There is no evidence to back billionaire Johann Rupert’s claim that undocumented foreigners are mainly behind farm murders ...