Fabricated news broadcast falsely claims Ukraine’s leader bought 51 percent of SA platinum mine

“In case you were wondering how your tax dollars are being spent – Zelensky just purchased a 51% stake in one of the biggest platinum mining companies in South Africa – Northam Platinum,” reads an X post published on April 4, 2025, by a US-based account. 

The post includes a 90-second clip designed to look like a news report by the South Africa Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).

The video is composed of archival footage typical of a news bulletin: a clip of Zelensky landing in France in 2024 and footage of when he met South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa in New York in September 2023.

The rest of the video shows general footage of mine workers, members of South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and a 30-second interview with a man who appears to work at Northam Platinum’s Zondereinde mine in Limpopo province.

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Screenshot of the false X post, taken on April 7, 2025

The video’s robotic-sounding narrator says: “Zelensky is set to visit South Africa and meet President Cyril Ramaphosa on April 10. His arrival is already surrounded by controversy following news that he has purchased a controlling stake in Northam Platinum Ltd, one of South Africa’s leading platinum mining companies.”

The narrator says the SABC crew spoke to a concerned Northam mine employee and adds that South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has called for urgent discussions with the company.

Part of the video includes a diagram of the investors alleged to be fronting for Zelensky.

Similar claims have been shared thousands of times on X, Facebook, and in multiple languages, including French, Greek and Russian.. 

A higher-definition version of the video has circulated on Russian websites. 

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, Grok, also peddled the claim, despite several viral X posts receiving a Community Notes label refuting it.

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Screenshot of the Grok summary on X, taken on April 7, 2025

Zelensky is scheduled to fly to South Africa for an official state visit on April 24, 2025, and SABC News has previously reported on the trip, including here and here. The initial date for his visit was April 10, 2025 (archived here, here and here).

However, the South African broadcaster did not publish a video claiming that Zelensky bought a majority stake in a local platinum mine.

Fabricated news

A Google search for “Zelensky + Northam Platinum” led to an article published by Zimbabwe’s NewsDay on March 27, 2025. 

Headlined “Northam platinum: Zelensky’s surprising move into the mining industry”, the article has since been replaced with another unrelated story, but not before it was archived.

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Screenshot of the NewsDay article, taken on April 7, 2025

NewsDay is known as a credible news site featuring articles that typically include a journalist’s byline. However, the Zelensky “opinion and analysis” piece was only attributed to the website.

The article claimed Zelensky’s mine deal was worth around 27 billion rand ($1.4 billion), but it did not refer to the unions or mine workers mentioned in the video.

Contacted by AFP Fact Check, NewsDay said they were investigating the matter. 

Broadcast video 'fake'

The SABC has not published any reports about Zelensky buying a stake in Northam Platinum, neither on its website nor on its social media channels. 

On April 4, SABC News responded to the video claim on X and said it “distances itself from the publication and distribution of fake news” (archived here).

After conducting reverse image and keyword searches, AFP Fact Check concluded the video was likely fabricated.

None of the footage from the purported broadcast corresponded to previous SABC reports we searched for online.

Meanwhile, in the interview with the purported miner, the mouth movements do not seem to quite align with the voice.

AFP Fact Check analysed the segment with InVID-WeVerify’s deepfake detector. The tool found “strong evidence” suggesting it contains AI manipulation. 

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Screenshot of the InVID-WeVerify results

Asked if mine workers at the Zondereinde mine were interviewed or had expressed concern about the claim, Dikeledi Manaka, the regional secretary for NUM, said on April 9, 2025, that “as one of the stakeholders in Northam Platinum, we are not aware of that”. 

Shareholding unchanged

On April 7, 2025, Sherilee Lakmidas, a spokeswoman for Northam Platinum, said: “All the media articles, videos and social media posts claiming that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is acquiring a stake in Northam Platinum are fake news.” 

She added: “Northam confirms that our shareholding remains unchanged.”

By law, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE)’s Stock Exchange News Service (SENS) ensures the timely disclosure -- usually within 24 to 48 hours -- of key company updates, including changes in major shareholding. 

This year, only local companies and fund managers have bought enough shares in Northam to trigger the JSE’s requirements of public disclosure. None of them (here, here and here) have acquired a 51 percent stake in the company (archived here: 1, 2, 3, 4).

The claim was also debunked by fact-checking organisations here and here (archived here and here).

Shayan Sardarizadeh, a disinformation expert at BBC Verify, wrote on X that the “clip bears the hallmarks of the work of a Russia-based influence operation” (archived here). 

Sardarizadeh added: “The operation uses AI to create viral fake news stories about Ukraine and Zelensky”. 

An AFP article published on March 10, 2025, cited researchers cautioning that Russian disinformation campaigns were “infecting” AI chatbots with misleading narratives and propaganda (archived here).

Read more AFP Fact Check debunks related to AI here.