The article said the country was following the example of India, where convicted rapists of girls under the age of 12 could face the death penalty.
The HINNews article has so far been shared over 20,000 times on Facebook. Earlier in October 2018, News24 identified the founder of HINNews as a Nigerian businessman from Port Harcourt called Elvis Gosife Udofia. (Note: “HIN” is an acronym for “Happenings in Nigeria”.)
“Udofia uses the traffic generated by the websites to monetise the misinformation, thereby making money off gullible users,” News24 explained.
‘It’s a lot of nonsense’
A call to the department of justice showed that this story was also made up. Spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga said no law to bring the death penalty back to South Africa had been tabled.
“It’s a lot of nonsense,” Ratshitanga told Africa Check. “The death penalty is not going to be reintroduced. It’s not even being considered.”
Mia Swart, research director at the Human Sciences Research Council’s democracy and governance unit, told Africa Check “the chances of [the death penalty] being reintroduced is at the moment very close to zero”.
It could only happen if the Constitutional Court’s 1995 decision in the landmark Makwanyane case was overturned.
“It was declared unconstitutional in a unanimous judgment of the court,” Swart said. “So, it cannot be reintroduced in light of the fact that the Constitutional Court declared it unconstitutional. It would be illegal to do so. And it would violate every single understanding of our constitutional democracy.” - Gopolang Makou (24/10/2018)
For publishers: what to do if your post is rated false
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Click on our guide for the steps you should follow.
Publishers guideAfrica Check teams up with Facebook
Africa Check is a partner in Meta's third-party fact-checking programme to help stop the spread of false information on social media.
The content we rate as “false” will be downgraded on Facebook and Instagram. This means fewer people will see it.
You can also help identify false information on Facebook. This guide explains how.
Further Reading
‘A time of crisis’: fact-checking South African president Cyril Ramaphosa’s 2023 state of the nation address
As he tried to reignite the enthusiasm of a wearied nation, did the president get his facts right? As we found out, it's all in the details.
[email protected]: The challenges of working across Africa
Misinformation knows no borders and Africa Check often responds to similar false claims from country to country.
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