No, this video does not show Tanzania's president furious with the national football team over their AFCON defeat to Senegal

This article is more than one year old.
Published on July 2, 2019 at 15:13
3 min read
By AFP Kenya, Mary KULUNDU

A video circulating on social media claims to show Tanzanian President John Magufuli furiously lashing out at the national football team after they were beaten by Senegal in the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) group stage game. However, the clip has been taken out of context and Magufuli was not talking about this match. It was filmed in March 2019 when Magufuli invited the team to the State House, and he was talking about a different game.

This is the second time Tanzania has made an appearance at AFCON -- the last time was 30 years ago. This year’s tournament is not going so well for the East African country, and they are trailing with zero points in the group matches.

On June 24, Tanzania was thrashed 2-0 by Senegal and three days later they were beaten by Kenya 3-2.

Posts claiming that Magufuli was angrily addressing the national team over their poor performance at AFCON first circulated online after the Senegal game. This post for instance, on KTN Kenya’s Facebook Page, shared an article from The Standard titled: ‘Kwani tumekosa wachezaji?’ (Is it that we don’t have players?) – Magufuli in furious tirade after Tanzania’s AFCON loss’.

According to social media analysis tool CrowdTangle, the Standard article generated nearly 1,500 interactions and more than 180 shares.

Screenshot taken on July 2, 2019 of the incorrect article by the Standard

The website Nairobi News also carried the same incorrect story.

In the 30-second clip that has been taken out of context, Magufuli is heard wondering how Tanzania could be defeated by a country with two million people. “Is it that we could not get 11 players from the 55 million people?” he asks in the Swahili-language clip.

The Standard’s article embedded this tweet that included the clip, which has been viewed more than 5,000 times and retweeted more than 60 times.

Screenshot taken on July 2, 2019 of a tweet incorrectly linking the video clip to the Senegal match

The tweet complained that Magafuli did not know the population of Senegal. But in fact, he wasn’t talking about Senegal at all.

The clip was taken from live footage filmed during the national team’s visit to Tanzania’s State House on March 25, 2019 -- you can watch it on YouTube here.

Magufuli had invited the national team to his residence after they qualified for AFCON, and gifted each player a parcel of land as a reward, as reported by AFP, as well as money for training.

The clip used in the misleading posts was taken from a section of the speech when he was talking about Tanzania’s 1-0 loss to Lesotho during qualification in November 2018.

We reviewed the long version of the footage. Magufuli says the following:

“I had planned not to invite any team to the State House after you were thrashed in Lesotho yet I had given you my 50 million shillings. That game frustrated me. I want to talk about it because I watched the game and how you were playing. Some good players were not placed in their rightful positions. And I kept on asking myself, ‘Whoever was planning the match, did they do it intentionally so that the team doesn’t win, or what were they thinking?’”

He then goes on to make the comment about being defeated by a country of two million, which is indeed the approximate population of Lesotho. This can be viewed here.

From the full version of the clip it is clear Magufuli was referring to the earlier qualifier against Lesotho. The match against Senegal came months after the footage was filmed.

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

E-mail