Videos misrepresented as attacks on foreigners in South Africa amid anti-immigrant protests
- Published on May 26, 2026 at 16:53
- 8 min read
- By Tendai DUBE, Mike YAMBO, AFP South Africa, AFP Kenya
Ongoing anti-immigrant protests in South Africa have attracted international condemnation and fueled a surge of misinformation online, with old and unrelated images and videos falsely presented as evidence of xenophobic attacks linked to the demonstrations.
Anti-migrant groups in South Africa are intensifying protests against undocumented foreigners, accusing them of contributing to crime, unemployment and pressure on public services (archived here and here).
Some demonstrations have reportedly involved vigilante-style actions, including demanding identity documents in the street and blocking migrants from accessing hospitals (archived here).
This has raised the alarm in countries including Ghana, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Malawi, Lesotho, and Nigeria, with some announcing emergency voluntary repatriation flights for their citizens (archived here, here, here, here, here and here).
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has condemned the violence as “criminal”, but rejected claims that South Africa is xenophobic (archived here).
While images and videos of assaults and harassment linked to the unrest have circulated on social media, some of them are unrelated to the current protests.
2025 mob justice
One such X post published on April 24, 2026, and shared more than 2,000 times, includes a two-minute video that shows a man being attacked by a group of people as security guards try to protect him.
“A Tanzanian National attacked brutally in Durban, South Africa for being an African foreigner (sic),” reads the caption.
The same video was published on X by a South African anti-immigrant group that AFP Fact Check has previously debunked (here and here), with a different caption reading: “An illegal Malawian foreigner got more than he was bargaining for after he attempted to steal a phone from a South African woman.”
People heard speaking Afrikaans in the video accuse the man of stealing a cellphone while kicking and punching him as he asks, “What have I done?”
Using reverse image searches, we found a Facebook post with the same video published by an account called “Gugulethu Times” on February 13, 2025 -- more than a year before the current unrest (archived here).
“He was caught stealing a cellphone in Cape Town CBD and was saved by the securities otherwise he was going to visit his ancestors,” reads the caption.
Using visual clues from the clip -- the Fountains Hotel in the background and the EXL office building -- AFP Fact Check geolocated the footage to Cape Town, and not Durban as alleged (archived here and here).
The security guards seen in the clip are also wearing Byers Security Services uniforms, a company based in the Western Cape province, more than 1,300 kilometres away from Durban (archived here and here).
At no point in the original clip is the identity of the man being attacked disclosed.
While AFP Fact Check couldn't independently verify the theft allegations, the timing and location confirm the video is unrelated to the 2026 anti-immigrant protests.
Tanzania attack
A second video shared on X on May 8, 2026, shows another man being shoved around and hit by a large and seemingly agitated crowd along a street.
“Black people in South Africa are attacking their fellow black people of Nigerian origin,” it reads. “This xenophobic attack is coming shortly after their president did campaign openly that Nigerians earning a living in the country are taking over the jobs their citizens could do (sic).”
The video was also published with similar claims on YouTube, and on Instagram linking it to police brutality in Nigeria.
A clearer version of the video (archived here) was posted on Instagram by a Tanzanian account under the username "zubery_khan" on April 6, 2026, with a Swahili caption reading: “The senses are gone already.”
Although there is no information on where the clip was filmed, some comments under the post assume the footage was taken in South Africa.
"Nelson Mandela your people let you down," one user wrote, while another commented, "South Africa you are pouring so much blood in your land. The repercussion will visit you (sic)."
The audio, however, suggests the incident was filmed in East Africa, as several voices can be heard speaking in Swahili -- a language widely spoken in the region -- saying “rough him up” and “kill him”, while others appear to plead for restraint, saying “spare him” and “don’t kill him”.
Other videos posted by the same Instagram account here and here appear to show different angles of the same incident. In one clip, a person in the crowd accuses the victim of theft.
AFP Fact Check geolocated the video to Somali Street in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, by identifying building signs visible in one of the clips: “Royal Ware" and “Tembo Hardware.”
We also identified motorcycle and vehicle registration plates, as well as a phone number displayed on one of the shops captured in the footage.
The registration plates match those found in Tanzania, according to World License Plates database, and the phone number includes the international dialling code +255, which belongs to Tanzania (archived here and here).
In response to a question about the date of the incident on one of the Instagram clips, "zubery_khan" replied that it happened on the evening of April 4, 2026.
Although AFP Fact Check was unable to find other local reports about the incident, the geolocation evidence confirms it is unrelated to the protests in South Africa or police brutality in Nigeria.
Ugandan women
An X post from April 29, 2026, includes a graphic video of a mob chasing two naked women on a highway before attacking them, and a photo that shows a man being stabbed in front of onlookers.
"This is South African men and women, stripping and beating up a Nigerian women (sic)," reads the caption. "Is this not enough for other African countries to arise and kick South Africa out?" @CyrilRamaphosa enabled this and even called other Africans criminals."
AFP Fact Check previously debunked the same footage and found it was filmed in Uganda in October 2022, when a crowd attacked two women who had been stripped after allegedly being identified as members of a gang of highway robbers. The incident was filmed on Uganda’s northern bypass.
Local Ugandan media reported on the incident at the time (archived here and here).
The photo shared alongside the video is more than 10 years old. It shows Emmanuel Sithole, a Mozambican who was stabbed in Alexandra township, Johannesburg, on April 18, 2015, during a wave of xenophobic attacks (archived here).
Sithole later died from his wounds, one of at least seven people killed during the 2015 attacks against immigrants (archived here).
The award-winning image was taken by South African-based photojournalist James Oatway (archived here).
AFP Fact Check also debunked French-language posts in late April, which claimed the photo showed Congolese nationals being attacked in the recent protests.
Meanwhile, after some delays in its plans to repatriate its citizens due to the violence, Ghana said it would proceed with evacuations on May 27, 2026 (archived here).
On May 24, Ghana's High Commissioner to South Africa, Benjamin Quashie, told AFP that they “have the first batch of 300 people who have voluntarily given their names to be repatriated to Ghana”.
He said the group was being screened by South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs and Border Management authorities, with a chartered Ethiopian Airlines flight scheduled to "leave at 6 am on Wednesday".
Quashie noted that most of the 15,000 Ghanaians registered in South Africa settled after obtaining a work permit, but that many of them were waiting, some for several years, for the result of their renewal application.
"In that case, do you call them illegal immigrants? Are they illegal by choice, or are illegal by the circumstances? They are illegal by the circumstances," he told AFP.
"I think that once we are able to understand that and allow the institutions to work, Africa will be a better place. But for now, it's a shame to see us doing this to one another as Africans."
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