The post was shared hundreds of times and included a photo of a loaf of bread in a package that appears to contain a rat.
AFP Fact Check debunked a false claim about immigrants posted by the same X user in July.
The photo in the last claim also has nothing to do with South Africa.
Delivery app drama
a reverse image search led to reports here And here about a delivery app customer in India who reportedly found a rat in a package of bread (archived here And here).
On February 3, 2023, X user “Nitin Arora” wrote about a “very unpleasant experience with @letsblinkit”, in which the discovery of a rat in a wrapped loaf of bread was described as “alarming” (archived here).
Blinkit is an India based direct delivery company company for groceries.
The message included a photo of the mouse and bread, as well as screenshots showing the user’s interaction with Blinkit’s customer service team.
The post also included an image of a digitally enhanced billboard and a punch line in Hindi that read: “If you ask for bread, you get a rat.”
According to one of the articles, the fake billboard was a joke reference to a viral campaign the company had participated in a month earlier (archived here).
The yellow billboard originally read: “Ask for milk, we will deliver it.”
A week after the viral complaint was published, Blinket’s head of Customer service said the company “took swift action and took the partner store private” (archived here).
I am the Head of Customer Support here at Blinkit. I want to assure you that we have taken swift action and removed the partner store from our list while we investigate the matter with the store owner. (1/n)
— Dhananjay Shashidharan (@Dhananjay_6691) February 11, 2023
Anti-immigrant sentiment
Despite being one of the highest in the world unemployment tariffs, South Africa attracts many economic migrants from elsewhere on the continent (archived here).
The influx, combined with poor economic prospects, has led to occasional outbreaks of violence against immigrants in recent years.
Local and foreign owners of spaza shops – small informal neighbourhood shops – also have a problem. for decades dispute on who should be able to own these outlets (archived here And here).
Last October, spa shop owners were accused of selling expired or counterfeit products after a series of deaths and food poisoning cases involving children (archived here).
Later that month, two siblings, aged three and four, also arrived died after reportedly ate snacks bought at a spaza shop in the Free State province of South Africa (archived here And here).
At that time, South African law enforcement officers were raids spa shops and confiscated or destroyed counterfeit or expired goods, in some cases leading to the arrest of undocumented foreign shopkeepers (archived here And here).
There were also reports of Somali businessmen being shot in various parts of the country. February 2023 And December 2023 (archived here And here).
Election candidates used this burning issue to fan the flames of online hate and disinformation during this year’s presidential election campaign for May 29 (archived here).
