Growing anti-foreigner sentiment in South Africa has unleashed a wave of disinformation online. Social media users recently shared photos allegedly showing the arrest of undocumented migrants who were caught selling dog meat to unsuspecting customers. However, the images were taken in Angola in December 2023 and have nothing to do with South Africa or any other countries where the claim has surfaced.
“In Tembisa, three illegal aliens, Ogechi Paul (36), Munachimso Kalu (25), and Kelvin Chikezie (29), were busted for selling dog meat,” reads an X post published on September 2, 2024.
The post includes a photo of two men and a woman, while another shows meat in a blue plastic container and the head and limbs of a dog arranged on a plastic crate.
“South Africans, stay alert! We cherish our dogs as pets, not food,” the post adds.
The post had amassed hundreds of likes before the X account was suspended.
The claim has circulated in different languages in other countries on the continent, including Guinea and Uganda, and was adjusted to suit the local anti-immigrant narratives.
But AFP Fact Check found the claims to be false.
Angola 2023
A reverse image search allowed us to trace the photographs to 2023 articles about a bust in Angola (archived here).
One of the women in the circulating photos is seen wearing a blue-green traditional wrap skirt that matches the pattern and material seen on a suspect photographed at the scene of the police raid in 2023.
The blue container and the plastic crate also match.
Portuguese media reported that Angola’s Criminal Investigation Service arrested a group on December 14, 2023, for selling dog meat to customers who believed they were buying goat meat (archived here).
Two of the suspects were said to be undocumented citizens originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Angolan reports identified all three people and the names do not match those in the false posts circulating online.
Further online searches showed that the same claim has been circulating on X since at least December 2023.
Anti-immigrant sentiment
South Africa attracts many economic migrants from elsewhere on the continent despite having one of the world’s highest unemployment rates (archived here).
The influx, coupled with a dim economic outlook, has sparked a rise in xenophobia – often directed at Nigerians – and sporadic bursts of anti-immigrant violence in recent years (archived here).
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Tensions increased further after a recent row involving a 2024 Miss South Africa finalist with Nigerian ties (archived here).
Chidimma Adetshina’s Nigerian heritage attracted vicious xenophobic attacks when she was announced as a pageant finalist in July, while the government said it was investigating a claim that her mother may have stolen the identity of a South African woman.
Adetshina ended up withdrawing from the contest and instead was crowned the winner of Miss Universe Nigeria.
Another recent incident saw the newly appointed Johannesburg mayor, Dada Morero in hot water for suggesting that foreign nationals should be hired as police officers (archived here).
AFP has debunked several false claims about immigrants in South Africa, including here and here.
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