Video shows a prank scene from a Nigerian reality show, not a polyandry wedding in South Africa

A post published on a Kenya Facebook page shared the video and accrued more than 3,500 shares before it was deleted.

The clip shows a woman in a white wedding dress cutting a cake alongside male twins wearing red suits.

"South Africa has amended the Marriage Act to allow women to marry two husbands. This was the first wedding under the new law," the Facebook post reads.

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A screenshot of the false Facebook post, taken on May 25, 2021

A Canadian-based radio station called G-Power Radio also shared the claim on its Facebook page, which has more than 50,000 followers.

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A screenshot of the false Facebook post, taken on May 25, 2021

The same claim was shared on Facebook (here and here), Instagram (here, here and here) as well as Twitter.

The claim surfaced after South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs released amendment proposals to the Marriage Act in early May. They include the recognition of polyandry, which would allow women to marry more than one man at the same time.

But contrary to what the misleading posts claim, the draft bill has not yet been passed into law, and a public consultation is underway until June, as local media reported here and here.

‘Prank marriage’

A reverse image search with video analysis tool InVID WeVerify located the video on the Instagram account of Nigerian actress Moyo Lawal (see here and here).

She dismissed the misleading claims that she was South African as false, also tagging the alleged twin grooms whose handle is @starguyz_twins.

The pair are Nigerian celebrity twins Joseph and Emmanuel Etim. The two also posted the clip of the alleged wedding here.

AFP Fact Check found that the video is part of Nigeria’s “Empire VIP House on Wheels” reality show in which contestants tour Lagos on a bus and live together in a house for four weeks. The housemates are gradually evicted, and the audience gets to choose the winner who walks away with the grand prize.

A spokesman for Empire Entertainment, which produces the show, told AFP Fact Check that the wedding had been part of the game's challenges.

"We told the contestants to officiate a marriage. It was a prank marriage," Deji Yakubu told AFP Fact Check.

South Africa currently recognises three types of marriages; civil marriages, customary marriages and civil unions (which recognise same-sex marriages).