“Church leader mauled by lion after trying to prove God will intervene,” reads the headline of an article shared on Facebook.
It shows a lioness leaping onto a running man. The original article was published by the Zambian Observer on 14 July 2019.
The report claims a church leader, Zion Christian Church prophet Alec Ndiwane, was viciously attacked by the lion during a safari trip.
“The man wanted to prove to the church members with him that God would save him. The man went into a trance and began to speak in many different languages and then started to run towards the pride of lions that were eating an impala in the Kruger National Park in South Africa,” it reads.
Back in March 2016, Africa Check fact-checked the same claim and found no evidence the incident happened.
Kruger National Park’s spokesperson at the time, William Mabasa, told Africa Check the park received no report of any of its rangers intervening in such an incidence. Mabasa called it a hoax.
The photo used in the 2019 hoax is different from the one used in 2016, but the storylines are essentially the same. Africa Check previously determined the picture is a still from Roar, a 1981 film starring Melanie Griffith and Tippi Hedren. (Note: Watch the scene here.)
This is the fifth false story in the Zambian Observer that Africa Check has exposed since May 2019. – Allwell Okpi
It shows a lioness leaping onto a running man. The original article was published by the Zambian Observer on 14 July 2019.
The report claims a church leader, Zion Christian Church prophet Alec Ndiwane, was viciously attacked by the lion during a safari trip.
“The man wanted to prove to the church members with him that God would save him. The man went into a trance and began to speak in many different languages and then started to run towards the pride of lions that were eating an impala in the Kruger National Park in South Africa,” it reads.
Old hoax debunked three years ago
Back in March 2016, Africa Check fact-checked the same claim and found no evidence the incident happened.
Kruger National Park’s spokesperson at the time, William Mabasa, told Africa Check the park received no report of any of its rangers intervening in such an incidence. Mabasa called it a hoax.
Different photo, same hoax
The photo used in the 2019 hoax is different from the one used in 2016, but the storylines are essentially the same. Africa Check previously determined the picture is a still from Roar, a 1981 film starring Melanie Griffith and Tippi Hedren. (Note: Watch the scene here.)
This is the fifth false story in the Zambian Observer that Africa Check has exposed since May 2019. – Allwell Okpi
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