Vietnam-based Facebook pages peddle conspiracies about South African ambassador who died in Paris
- Published on November 5, 2025 at 09:21
- 5 min read
- By Tendai DUBE, AFP South Africa
Copyright © AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
South Africa’s ambassador to France, Nathi Mthethwa, was found dead outside a Paris hotel at the end of September 2025, after reportedly falling from the 22nd floor. In the weeks that followed, hundreds of clickbait social media posts circulated unfounded conspiracies about Mthethwa’s death. The posts, which include unrelated footage claiming to show the fall, were primarily being shared by Facebook pages based in Vietnam, with links to bogus websites.
“VIRAL VIDEO EXPOSES —A SHOCKING MOMENT CAUGHT IN REAL TIME‼” reads a Facebook post published on October 5, 2025.
“The original footage of Nathi Mthethwa’s tragic fall in a Paris hotel has taken the internet by storm, revealing a heart-wrenching and mysterious event,” the post adds. “The psychological impact of this shocking video has left millions in disbelief, sparking intense debate over what really happened. Prepare for a dramatic and emotional rollercoaster!”
The post features a link to an article on southtoday.com, seemingly with further details.
Similar posts were shared elsewhere on Facebook (here and here) with photos of Mthethwa alongside marked screenshots of a figure falling from a building.
The text “NATHI MTHEHTHWA’S TRAGIC FALL IN PARIS HOTEL LAST MOMENTS” is superimposed on the images.
Mthethwa, a former long-standing cabinet minister, was found dead on September 30, 2025, outside the Hyatt Regency hotel in Paris, after the window of his room in the high-rise building was forced open (archived here and here).
At the time, Paris prosecutors said they believed it was “a deliberate act, without the intervention of a third party”.
Contrary to the online posts, investigators have not released any footage showing the moment Mthethwa fell to his death.
China 2019
Reverse image search results showed that the screenshots of a figure falling from a tall building are related to a real incident, but not Mthethwa’s death.
According to Chinese media reports from April 2019 and the Qinyang City Public Security Bureau, the images are of a student who fell to his death from the 18th floor of a residential complex in Qinyang City, Henan province (archived here and here).
English tabloids later reported on the incident (archived here).
The screengrab used in the false posts was taken from a video of the incident in China.
Other similarly styled posts claim to show CCTV footage of an alleged killer, DNA evidence from the scene, and news of the alleged arrest of an assassin. These posts are also false.
Media reports from October 7, 2025, quoted South Africa’s police commissioner Fannie Masemola saying a senior officer would be sent to France to receive a report directly from French authorities (archived here).
Asked for an update, national police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said on November 3, 2025, that “the ambassador was laid to rest and any comment should be made by his family going forward”.
Family spokesman Dr Sfiso Buthelezi said that “nobody has communicated to us as to what happened between the French and South African police, so we do not know”.
He told AFP Fact Check that the family believes the investigation into Mthethwa's death remains open until they are told otherwise.
“Frankly speaking, we decided as a family to rely on what the French police will tell us,” Buthelezi added. “What you say is on the social media platform has not been reported to us by the police. Until that happens, we choose to ignore any other noise.”
Just before he died, Mthethwa was named in a graft probe into corruption within the police service. His remains were repatriated on October 9, 2025, and he was buried three days later in his home village (archived here, here and here).
Vietnamese pages
According to page transparency information, most of the Facebook accounts peddling the false claims about Mthethwa appear to be managed in Vietnam.
The pages use colloquial names associated with South Africa to give the impression that they are run locally.
One Facebook page shares unrelated address and contact details for a motorsport goods shop, while another uses a Zambian phone number, alongside a residential address in Mossel Bay, South Africa.
AFP Fact Check observed a similar trend in an October 20, 2025, report about Facebook posts targeting baseball fans and reported numerous accounts to Meta (archived here).
“The goal of pages and operations like this is to earn money, and so whatever is going to work in terms of messaging, in terms of content, in terms of tactics they will do,” Canadian journalist Craig Silverman, who has investigated similar clickbait content, told AFP.
Experts warn that this tactic of attracting users, sometimes with harmless content, can be exploited to expand accounts that are later sold or rented to more malicious disinformation campaigns.
In another 2024 report, British photographer Jack Latham published his findings from an investigation into several click farms, as these centres of operation are known, in Hanoi, Vietnam (archived here).
Individuals working there were typically responsible for a specific social media platform. For example, one “farmer” might handle mass posting and commenting on Facebook accounts, while another creates YouTube channels, uploading and watching videos repeatedly.
Bogus websites
Each Facebook post links to articles hosted on the “southtodayy” website, which publishes similar false and sensationalised news about South Africa.
The website's domain information (archived here) is linked to an Icelandic address under “Withheld for Privacy”, an internet privacy service operated by Namecheap – described as a hub for some of the internet's “sketchiest websites” by the New York Times in 2024.
The NYT report noted that Iceland has emerged as a global hub for dubious websites, largely due to its strong privacy laws.
In March 2025, more than 20 South Africans were rescued from cyber compounds in Myanmar after being lured there under false pretences (archived here).
Another 41 South Africans escaped a Myanmar compound on October 22, 2025 (archived here).
A recent AFP investigation examined the booming cyberfraud operations in Myanmar, which have scammed victims out of billions of dollars (archived here).
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
