Old video of police crackdown on taxis in S.Africa linked to fabricated story about pregnant woman
- Published on September 5, 2025 at 15:53
- 5 min read
- By Tendai DUBE, AFP South Africa
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“Taxi Drivers Arrested After Alleged Harassment of Pregnant Woman at School Pickup,” reads part of a lengthy X post published on August 26, 2025.
“Eight taxi drivers were taken into custody earlier today after reportedly attempting to forcibly remove a pregnant woman from her vehicle while she was picking up her children from school,” adds the caption posted with images by an account called “@PrimeTimeNewsZA”.
According to the post, “the woman and her children were unharmed”, but the police did not disclose the “specific school location to protect the victim's privacy”.
The post, with over 5,000 likes and more than 1,100 reposts, includes three screenshots showing an altercation involving police officials and people in minibuses commonly used for public transportation in South Africa.
A day later, the same account replied to the post with a 60-second video of the purported scene, showing police using force to apprehend people watching among rows of minibuses blocking the road.
The post is captioned: “Video of incident involving taxi drivers and law enforcement.”
This, and the name of the account, implies it is a recent news report, an assumption echoed in some replies. Other users, however, dismissed the clip as an old video.
Similar posts were shared on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
Although tensions within the minibus taxi industry have escalated in recent months, this video has been online since August 2023.
Cape Town blitz
A reverse image search of the screenshots in the post and the clip in the comments led to older social media posts and articles about a police confrontation in Cape Town, South Africa.
AFP Fact Check found the video was published on August 2, 2023, on X with the caption: “Taxi drivers caused violence in Cape Town earlier. In this video, they met their match SAPS and Metro…(sic)” (archived here).
Both videos depict the same standoff between taxi operators and police officers.
On the day in question, local media reported that violent clashes had broken out in Cape Town after law enforcement agencies impounded taxis, prompting some operators to lock themselves inside their minibuses in protest (archived here).
AFP Fact Check geolocated the junction in Cape Town where the blitz occurred by searching on Google Maps for Christiaan Barnard Street, the name that appears on a street sign in the video.
A comparison of the satellite imagery and the video shows the same buildings in the background.
According to reports, opposition parties at the time condemned the city’s heavy-handed response to the protesting drivers.
The week-long strike culminated in the deaths of five people, including a police officer, and left thousands of commuters stranded after buses and private vehicles were burnt (archived here).
The Western Cape province estimated the economic cost of the strike at roughly five billion rand (about $283 million) (archived here).
Online searches failed to reveal any credible reports of a pregnant woman rescued by police from protesting taxi drivers.
Contacted by AFP Fact Check, South Africa’s national police spokeswoman Athlende Mathe said on September 1, 2025, they were “not aware of this incident”.
Taxi violence
In late August 2025, South African media reported that minibus taxi drivers and commuters in Cape Town said they feared for their lives, following a spate of deadly shootings in the city linked to feuding taxi associations which control routes (archived here and here).
The recent violence resulted in the deaths of five people, including four drivers, and injured several others.
The provincial government called on taxi operators to urgently resolve the conflict after a deadlock heightened tensions (archived here).
AFP Fact Check debunked another recent claim about taxi-related violence in South Africa.
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