SAPS is the abbreviation for the South African Police Service, and Beitbridge is a border crossing between South Africa and neighboring Zimbabwe (archived here).
This embedded content is not available in your region.
The post was spread by many South African accounts. It was originally published by a Nigerian account that shares content disparaging the Igbo, an ethnic group in West Africa.
The post includes a photo of a man with his face covered and being escorted by police, a man handcuffed and standing with his back to him, and several objects with the words “Superpower 90” written on them.
Social media users liked the post more than 2,800 times, with several people writing xenophobic or violent messages about Nigerians.
“Always Nigerians,” one user wrote, while another suggested that the police should have killed the person in question.
Anti-foreigner sentiment is a burning issue in South Africa, with the unemployment rate rising to a record high of 33.5 percent in the second quarter of 2024.
In one recent, high-profile example, backlash over 23-year-old Chidimma Adetshina’s Nigerian heritage forced the pageant queen to withdraw from the South African beauty pageant over concerns about “the safety and well-being” of the contestant and her family (archived). here).
But the claim that the SAPS arrested a Nigerian who tried to smuggle explosives into South Africa is incorrect.
Statement from the police
Some comments pointed out that similar claims have been circulating for some time, including in this 2022 report. X-message (archived here).
AFP Fact Check contacted South African authorities, who confirmed that there have been no recent arrests in Beitbridge for smuggling explosives.
“The police in Musina have no information that matches your query,” said police spokesperson Colonel Malesa Ledwaba.
AFP Fact Check has a reverse image search and discovered that two images in the post showed unrelated incidents in South Africa.
The first image in the fake message shows a man being escorted out of a police car.
AFP Fact Check found that the original photo The official SAPS Facebook page shows the aftermath of a 2016 looting during civil wars in Tshwane, a township almost 500 kilometres from Beitbridge (archived here).
The third image shows the seized explosives.
AFP Fact Check found that SAPS original image following the 2022 arrest of a Zimbabwean man who attempted to smuggle explosives through the Beitbridge border crossing (archived here).
AFP has not yet been able to trace the second image showing the handcuffed man.
In the 2022 statement, SAPS describes an incident similar to the one described in the false report.
“The concerted efforts of police at the Beitbridge Border Post… continue to yield positive results following the arrest of a 33-year-old suspect in the early hours of Saturday 23 July 2022 for attempting to smuggle commercial explosives into the country,” the announcement said.
AFP Fact Check has debunked several claims targeting Nigerians in South Africa, which you can read here here.