Picture shows dam in the US, not South Africa
- Published on January 16, 2024 at 15:29
- 3 min read
- By Tendai DUBE, AFP South Africa
Copyright © AFP 2017-2024. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
“Those who never been in Limpopo here's Nandoni dam in Venda (sic),” reads a Facebook post published on January 6, 2024.
The post was shared to a Facebook group dedicated to fans of Podcast and Chill with MacG, one of the most popular podcasts in South Africa. The podcast, which touts more than a million subscribers, often makes lifestyle headlines for defamatory, misogynistic or explicit content. The show's main host is MacG, who was born in Limpopo (archived here, here and here).
Some comments below the post were skeptical about the dam's location.
Similar claims have also been shared here and here, but only some users replying to the posts believed it showed a dam in South Africa.
Not Nandoni
One clue that the photo is not in South Africa is that the photo features motorists driving on the right-hand side of the road -- while South Africans drive on the left-hand side. Another clue is there are no hydroelectric power plants in the Limpopo province.
A Google search of Nandoni Dam led to an article with an image of the dam, which confirms that it looks nothing like the one circulating in the false posts (archived here).
A satellite view of Nandoni Dam on Google Maps also shows that the region is not as arid as it looks in the photo shared in the posts (archived here).
Hoover Dam
A reverse image search found that the picture shared in the posts actually shows Hoover Dam in the US state of Nevada. It has been online since at least October 31, 2021.
The original photograph is on Adobe Stock and Shutterstock, with credit attributed to photographer Serge Ka (archived here, here and here).
Hoover Dam is on the border of the US states of Nevada and Arizona. Some of its uses are domestic water supply, flood control and hydroelectric power (archived here and here).
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
