Old protest photo falsely recast as South African women rallying for foreign husbands
- Published on June 3, 2026 at 13:54
- 3 min read
- By Monique NGO MAYAG, Tendai DUBE, AFP Senegal, AFP South Africa
- Translation and adaptation Oluseyi AWOJULUGBE, AFP Nigeria
Marches against undocumented foreigners in South Africa have led to sporadic violence against immigrant shop owners and fueled vitriolic commentary on social media, complete with images and videos. One photo of women marching in their underwear has been shared with the claim that it shows Zulu women protesting in support of their foreign husbands. But this is false; the image was taken in 2022 at an anti-immigrant rally in Johannesburg.
A Facebook post published on May 8, 2026, has been shared more than 200 times with an image of people protesting in the street, some of them women wearing bras without tops.
The caption states that a few weeks ago, “South Africans were on the streets attacking foreigners, looting shops and shouting: ‘Immigrants must go’.”
It then adds that something surprising happened.
“Some Zulu women have come out publicly protesting, saying their Nigerian and Zimbabwean husbands must not be forced out of South Africa because they do not want to lose their men to xenophobic att@cks (sic).”
The post also insinuates that men from other African countries might be better romantic partners than their South African counterparts.
Similar versions of the claim were shared on X, Facebook, and TikTok, and identified the protesters as “South African women” married to Nigerians and Zimbabweans.
Xenophobic marches in major South African cities like Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban have intensified in 2026, leading to violence against foreigners and their businesses (archived here).
Some migrants moved from their homes to a church centre for protection (archived here).
In response, the Ghanaian government repatriated the first group of 300 of its citizens from South Africa, out of a total of 800 who expressed willingness to return home (archived here). Although the majority on board were in the country illegally, Ghana blamed the South African government for long delays in processing permits.
However, the claim that Zulu women protested in their underwear in defence of their foreign husbands is false.
2022 demonstration
A reverse image search using Google Lens traced the photo to an article published by online magazine Daily Maverick on February 20, 2022 (archived here).
"Fed-up SA citizens take to the streets, blaming foreigners for crime and the unemployment crisis," reads the headline.
The caption on the original photo reads: “Members of the anti-foreigners movement, the so-called Operation Dudula, during a gathering in Orange Grove in Johannesburg on 13 February 2022.”
The image was taken by photographer Guillem Sartorio for AFP.
With this information, we traced the photo to AFP’s image bank, where the image metadata confirmed that the photo was taken on February 13, 2022, at a demonstration against migrant workers by members of “Operation Dudula” (archived here).
“Members of the anti-foreigners movement so-called ‘Operation Dudula’ wearing only their bra as a sign of discontent, march during a gathering in Orange Grove in Johannesburg on February 13, 2022. South African police said they fired rubber bullets at demonstrators gathered in Johannesburg on Sunday to protest against migrant workers, also using stun grenades to try to disperse the group of around 200 people,” reads the caption.
Dudula is the Zulu word for “push back”.
The movement was founded in 2022 by Nhlanhla “Lux” Dlamini in Soweto to campaign for the deportation of undocumented migrants (archived here).
It registered as a political party in September 2023, though its marches are often marred by violence against foreigners and their businesses (archived here and here).
Sartorio confirmed to AFP Fact Check that the photo in question was from a xenophobic rally.
“The people I photographed that day were indeed participating in an Operation Dudula rally,” he said.
In the original photo, a man can be seen wearing a T-shirt with the organisation’s logo on it, a detail that appears to have been cropped out to support the false claim that South African women were protesting on behalf of their foreign husbands.
AFP Fact Check also debunked the claim in French.
Find other articles related to the xenophobic demonstrations here and here.
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