Claims that Mnangagwa told Zimbabweans to walk home from South Africa stem from satire
- Published on June 29, 2026 at 15:05
- 3 min read
- By Tendai DUBE, AFP South Africa
With thousands of foreign nationals in South Africa fleeing ahead of an unofficial June 30 deadline targeting migrants, social media posts claim that Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa told his citizens to walk back home. But this is false; the claim originated from a satirical Facebook page and includes a doctored image that misrepresents Mnangagwa’s address at a 2025 regional summit in Kenya.
“Zimbabwe's President Says Its People Will Walk Back Home the Same Way They Walked to South Africa; He Doesn't Have a Budget to Transport Them for Free Before 30 June (sic),” reads an X post published on June 16, 2026.
Shared more than 1,600 times, the post includes a screenshot of a news broadcast bearing the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) logo. Mnangagwa is pictured at a podium at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) in Nairobi.
“Zimbabwe Says Its People Will Walk Back Home the Same Way They Walked to South Africa”, the purported strapline reads.
The post was shared by "@Patriot_S_A”, an X account that promotes the Put South Africa First movement and has previously been debunked by AFP Fact Check.
Similar claims were shared on Facebook and X using different images of people crossing a river or at a border.
The claims emerged amid rising anti-foreigner tensions and calls by some citizen-led groups for undocumented migrants to leave the country by June 30 (archived here).
While the deadline has no legal basis, it has heightened anxiety following weeks of xenophobic unrest that reportedly left at least two people dead.
Police announced on June 22 that they would increase law enforcement deployments nationwide ahead of the date (archived here).
Experts told AFP that online threats and disinformation have amplified fears surrounding the deadline and helped mobilise anti-immigrant sentiment (archived here).
South Africa has long drawn migrant workers, but now contends with over 32 percent unemployment and a history of anti-foreigner violence, often fuelled by claims that migrants drive up crime and take jobs (archived here, here and here).
However, Mnangagwa did not make the remarks attributed to him. The KBC screenshot was also altered.
COMESA 2025
A reverse image search established that the KBC screenshot was altered from footage of Mnangagwa speaking at the 24th Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) heads of state summit in Kenya in 2025.
A seven-minute video published by KBC on October 9, 2025, on YouTube shows Mnangagwa addressing the summit (archived here).
Contrary to the claim, the original footage shows the strapline reading: “24TH COMESA HEADS OF STATE & GOVT. SUMMIT”.
The text also differs in font and size.
At no point in the speech does Mnangagwa reference Zimbabweans returning from South Africa.
Instead, at the precise moment captured in the screenshot, he spoke about COMESA being a “vital platform” for “the pooling of resources, harmonisation of policies and promotion of intra-regional trade and investment”.
Satirical origins
Further searches traced the claim to a satirical Facebook page called News Vine South Africa, which originally published the post with the altered screenshot on June 16.
Its headline, styled as a news article with a dateline from Zimbabwe’s capital Harare, reads: “Zimbabwe Says Its People Will Walk Back Home the Same Way They Walked to South Africa.”
“The Government of Zimbabwe has announced that it has developed a comprehensive, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly repatriation plan for Zimbabweans wishing to leave South Africa. The plan is simple. ‘Walk,’ officials confirmed,” the post reads.
A government spokesperson is then quoted as saying Zimbabwe could not justify spending millions on buses and planes when citizens had already demonstrated “exceptional walking abilities” on their journey south.
The post ends with a disclaimer that the “article is satire and intended purely for humour”.
Most commenters under the post appeared to understand the joke.
A second satirical post by the same page repeated the joke, adding that Mnangagwa urged “Zimbabweans currently living in South Africa to begin their journey home immediately if they hope to arrive before the government's unofficial 30 June ‘welcome back’ deadline.”
Zimbabwe and South Africa share the Beitbridge Border, one of the busiest posts in the region (archived here).
Meanwhile, scores of Zimbabweans have returned home, as repatriations from South Africa continue. Other foreign nationals, including people from Nigeria, Ghana, Malawi and Mozambique, have also left the country in recent weeks (archived here and here).
AFP Fact Check has debunked other claims related to the current anti-foreigner unrest in South Africa, including here and here.
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