A screenshot of the YouTube video, titled “Should You Stop Wearing Tampons?”

In a recent video published on YouTube, relationship expert Kimberly Moffit claims: “In South Africa nine million girls ages [sic] 13 to 19 miss school because of a lack of menstrual hygiene products or facilities to change them throughout the day.” 

The video, which had been viewed by nearly 700,000 people when we watched it, asks the question “Should You Stop Wearing Tampons?” It suggests that menstrual cups offer women a cheaper, environmentally friendly alternative.

But the South African statistics used in the video are just plain wrong.

A recent Africa Check report debunked the claim that 7 million South African girls miss school every month due to not having access to sanitary pads. It found that it was possible that around 3.7 million girls from Grade 3 to Grade 12 could be affected.

The claim in this YouTube video greatly overstates the number of girls aged 13 to 19 in South Africa. The country’s 2016 Community Survey estimated that there were only 3,520,381 girls in this age group – less than half the figure cited in the video. – 26/09/2016

Additional reading

Do 7 million SA girls miss school every month due to lack of sanitary pads?

Do 7 million SA girls miss school every month due to lack of sanitary pads?

A resident of Nongoma, northwest of Durban, who has been badly affected by the recent drought, prepares to collect water from a free water point in November 2015. Photo: AFP/MUJAHID SAFODIEN

This week, researcher Gopolang Makou investigated the claim by South Africa’s department of water and sanitation that “South Africa is ranked amongst the 30 driest countries in the world”. Listen to the podcast where she debunks it.

Africa Check has signed up to the International Fact-Checking Network’s code of principles, which lets you judge our commitment to non-partisanship, transparency and honest corrections. Executive director Peter Cunliffe-Jones wrote a blog about how you can now check the fact-checkers.

Also this week, the shortlist for the 2016 African Fact-Checking Awards was announced. Read the seven fact-checking reports on our shortlist: Two from Nigeria and one each from Cameroon, Kenya, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The winner will be announced on 10 November in Nairobi, Kenya.

South Africa’s annual crime statistics made headlines this weekend, after their release on Friday.

Numerous websites, including Times LIVE, the UK’s Independent, the South African Government News Agency, SABC, The Citizen and Sowetan LIVE, reported that the country’s murder rate increased by 4.9%.

But the claim is wrong – and based on a misunderstanding of Crime Statistics 101.Crime statistics are usually reported in two ways: absolute numbers and crime rates. (Note: The SA police only released the absolute numbers last week.)

The absolute number of murders recorded increased by 4.9% from 17,805 in 2014/15 to 18,673 in 2015/16. But the number of murders recorded is not the murder rate.

The murder rate refers to the number of murders recorded per 100,000 people in the country.

South Africa’s murder rate increased from 32.9 in 2014/15 to 33.9 in 2015/16. This is equal to a 3% increase – 1.9 percentage points lower than reported. (Note: This guide explains the difference between “percentage point increases” and “percentage increases”.)

Why are crime rates reported alongside absolute numbers? They’re more useful for  comparing changes over time, as they allow you to make fair comparisons between different population sizes and geographic areas.

This is because – generally – the number of crimes committed will increase as a population grows. The crime rate allows us to see whether crimes have increased or decreased in relation to the size of the population. – 06/09/2016

Additional reading FACTSHEET: South Africa’s 2015/16 crime statistics

Understanding crime statistics in South Africa – what you need to know

GUIDE: Tips to avoid three common statistical errors

The South African police released their statistics on the number of crimes recorded in the 2015/16 reporting year, running from 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2016, on 2 September in parliament.

The police released the crime statistics as absolute numbers – that being how many crimes were recorded in 2015/16. Below we have included the crime rates, calculated with Statistics South Africa’s mid-year population estimates. This refers to the number of crimes committed per 100,000 people in a country.

Crime rates are more useful than absolute numbers for comparing changes over time, as they allow you to make fair comparisons between different population sizes.

This is because – generally – the number of crimes committed will increase as a population grows. The crime rate allows us to see whether crimes have increased or decreased in relation to the size of the population.

We summarised crimes of public interest in this factsheet.

Click here to read the factsheet.