Africa Check
No evidence nearly 7,500 children die from ‘hunger’ each year in South Africa
2nd November 2020 “Nearly 7,500 children under the age of five die annually in South Africa as a direct result of hunger,” says an article published by the South... →
Have South Africa’s commercial farmers declined from 120,000 in 1994 to 38,000? DA MP’s claim is misleading
22nd October 2020 Violent attacks on South African farms have again been in the headlines, following the murder of a young farm manager in early October 2020. Four... →
Kenya’s ex-prime minister Odinga mangles his numbers on government revenue share in Nigeria
25th September 2020 After months of an often fractious stalemate, in September 2020 Kenya’s senate hammered out a deal on how revenue would be shared between the... →
Fact-checking influential TV presenter’s claims about child trafficking in South Africa
23rd September 2020 In September 2020 a video shared on social media showed a man appearing to try to snatch a child from a restaurant in the Roodepoort area of... →
Factchecking Kenya’s chief justice on judiciary funding and backlog of cases
21st September 2020 To mark the tenth anniversary of Kenya’s constitution, broadcaster NTV interviewed current and former government officials on how the law has been... →
Police violence in South Africa: what do the numbers show?
14th September 2020 The death of a South African boy in August 2020 has sparked national outrage and raised questions about police violence in the country. Nathaniel... →
No, WHO hasn’t ‘unequivocally’ said South Africa is not ready to lift Covid-19 lockdown
6th August 2020 South Africa’s nationwide Covid-19 lockdown was eased in April 2020. It was replaced with a risk adjusted strategy, where regulations are lifted or... →
Fact-checking president Ramaphosa: Have 51% of South African women experienced intimate partner violence?
6th July 2020 South Africa experienced a “dark and shameful week” in June 2020, according to president Cyril Ramaphosa. In a statement on 13 June, Ramaphosa... →
Alcohol burdens hospitals, but no evidence for South African police minister’s ‘baffling’ numbers
2nd July 2020 South Africa has been in lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid-19 since late March 2020. During the early weeks of the lockdown, people could... →
No, Nigeria hasn’t found Covid-19 vaccine yet – but hunt is on
25th June 2020 Has Nigeria developed a vaccine against Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus? News of this potentially significant development was... →
Up in smoke: Roughly R35m in tobacco tax revenues lost daily during South Africa’s lockdown
17th June 2020 Smokers in South Africa are grumpy. The sale of tobacco products has been banned in the country since a national lockdown was implemented on 27... →
Are women three times as likely to live to over 100 than men in Kenya? Not exactly
30th April 2020 The staggered release of Kenya’s population data following the 2019 census continues to provide new insights into the country’s demographics. The... →
More than an inconvenience: Alcohol ban could help South Africans fight Covid-19 infection
17th April 2020 The South African government recently warned its nearly 400 000 Twitter followers to avoid alcohol. “It weakens the immune system!” the tweet... →
South Africa has more than 800 ICU beds – but exactly how many is unclear
9th April 2020 “We only have 800 ICU beds in the whole country,” reads a message shared on WhatsApp in South Africa. A user sent the message to Africa Check’s... →
South African mayor incorrect about Covid-19 ‘vaccine’
30th March 2020 South Africa went into lockdown on 27 March 2020, as the government tries to control the spread of the new coronavirus. There are now more than... →
Are 40% of South African women raped in their lifetime and only 8.6% of perpetrators jailed?
26th March 2020 A newspaper advert from South African advocacy organisation Rape Crisis was shared on Twitter on 26 February 2020. The ad is printed across a... →
No, spekboom isn’t more effective than the Amazon rainforest at ‘sucking carbon’ out of the atmosphere
5th March 2020 The latest popular effort to help reverse climate change is to pull carbon out of the atmosphere and store it in plant form – the spekboom plant,... →
Fact-checking president Kenyatta on Kenya’s small businesses – it’s a data ‘Tower of Babel’
4th March 2020 In a January 2020 national address, Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta spoke about the value of small businesses in the country. Micro, small and... →
South Africa’s C-section rate double what it should be? There’s no recommended rate, says WHO
26th February 2020 With the start of the new year, babies born on the first day of 2020 were celebrated in South Africa. But it was not plain sailing for all... →
South Africa’s state of the nation address: 2016 to 2019 in review
13th February 2020 On 13 February 2020, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa will deliver his fourth state of the nation address. The theme for this year’s speech... →
No evidence that 40% of medicines sold in Africa are fake
10th February 2020 A reader recently contacted Africa Check to verify if a claim that as many as 40% of medicines sold in Africa were fake. This was after a user on... →
Is youth unemployment in Nigeria ‘almost getting to 70%’?
5th February 2020 As calendars flipped over to 2020, Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari outlined his agenda for the country in a “letter from the president”.... →
Are over 4 000 officers convicted criminals? South African police ‘still checking’
30th January 2020 A photo being shared on Facebook shows a crowd of people saluting, dressed in the navy-blue uniform of the South African Police Service (Saps).... →
Nigeria’s ‘major’ cancer problem: did vice president Osinbajo get his facts straight?
29th January 2020 At a recent ceremony, Nigeria’s vice president Yemi Osinbajo launched construction of a new cancer treatment centre at the Muhammadu Buhari... →
No, Eskom doesn’t generate 45% of electricity used in Africa
27th January 2020 South African state-owned electricity provider Eskom had a nightmarish start to the year. Only four days into 2020, rolling blackouts resumed... →
Campaigner in hit and miss with facts about Nigeria’s stroke burden
13th January 2020 On World Stroke Day in 2019, Nigerian media reported on the toll of the life-threatening condition, which is caused by the sudden interruption of... →
Do one in four women in Africa suffer from depression? We checked
9th January 2020 When Wenzile Madonsela Msimanga tweeted about the prevalence of depression among women in Africa, a number of Twitter users wanted to know where... →
More than 15 female vice-chancellors have led Nigerian universities, but higher education still a man’s world
6th December 2019 The recent appointment of Prof Lilian Salami as the vice-chancellor of the University of Benin in Edo state was widely praised. Salami becomes the... →
Fact-checked: 5 claims by Kenyan President Kenyatta in national day speech
5th December 2019 Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa hosted Mashujaa Day celebrations for the first time in 2019. One of three annual national days in Kenya and... →
Yes, South Africa’s clean energy output up from zero to ‘over 4.5%’ since 2010
4th December 2019 South Africa’s government had “successfully increased the contribution of clean energy from 0% in 2010 to over 4.5% within five years”, energy... →
South African Airways does not employ 55 500 people
21st November 2019 A strike at cash-strapped South African Airways (SAA) led to all local flights being cancelled. Employees are demanding higher pay and for planned... →
Fact-checked: Al Jazeera’s claims about Nigeria’s ‘mental health problem’
19th November 2019 On World Mental Health Day on 10 October 2019, Qatar-headquartered news organisation Al Jazeera focused on Nigeria. In an online report with the... →
Fact-Checked: President Cyril Ramaphosa’s claims about progress in South Africa since 1994
14th November 2019 How has South Africa fared since its first democratic elections in 1994? That’s the question a new government report released by the country’s... →
Has ‘super’ minister been handed nearly half of Kenya’s development cash?
12th November 2019 The “Sh800-billion minister with few answers”: That is how Kenyan daily the Standard recently described transport and infrastructure minister James... →
ICT outstrips oil and gas in Nigeria’s economy – but error in minister’s comparison
7th November 2019 Nigeria’s information and communication technology (ICT) sector contributed more to gross domestic product than the oil and gas sector, Dr Isa... →
Tallest building in Africa? SA’s Leonardo pulls the trigger too soon
23rd October 2019 Media reports have recently hailed the opulent Leonardo tower in Johannesburg’s Sandton district as the new tallest building in Africa. The... →
No Minister Cele: SA not only country in Africa giving out crime stats
20th September 2019 While releasing South Africa’s annual crime statistics, police minister Bheki Cele said that his department had “dropped the ball” when it came to... →
No evidence ‘nearly half of all child deaths in Africa stem from hunger’
10th September 2019 “Nearly half of all child deaths in Africa stem from hunger,” read the headline of a June 2019 online article by the UK’s Guardian newspaper.... →
Think before you share! Old, misleading videos said to be of xenophobic violence in SA are going viral
4th September 2019 Xenophobic unrest has flared up again in South Africa’s Gauteng province. Violent attacks against foreign-owned businesses and incidents of looting... →
Five facts: Femicide in South Africa
4th September 2019 South Africans have been horrified by the murder of University of Cape Town student Uyinene Mrwetyana. Initial reports suggest that a post office... →
Unproven that Hillbrow, nearby areas are ‘80% foreign national’ as claimed in much-shared video
4th September 2019 In a video being shared briskly following a spate of attacks in South Africa by mobs targeting foreign-owned businesses, former deputy minister of... →
