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No, Orlando Pirates hasn’t fired player after arrest for rape of 12-year-old

Trends Daily is at it again.

The platform publishes on at least two websites – trendsdaily.co.za and hinnews.com – and three Facebook pages: Latest Football News, Latest News South Africa and Mzansi Football.

But one thing stays the same, as Africa Check has found. Its “news” can’t be trusted.

We’ve already busted its false stories on South African football. But this time Trends Daily has taken a real and tragic report on the rape of a 12-year-old girl in the Eastern Cape province and used it for clickbait.


 

Story copied from News24 report


“Pirates Terminate Their Player Contract After He Was Arrested For Raping 12-Year-Old Girl,” reads the Trends Daily headline. (“Pirates” is short for Orlando Pirates, a major South African football club.)

The story begins: “A 27-year-old man who identified himself as Pirates player has been arrested in Butterworth, in the Eastern Cape, on Sunday for allegedly raping a 12-year-old girl, police said.” It was published on 19 February 2019.

Except for the headline and first paragraph, the story is a word-for-word copy of a News24 article published on 18 February under the headline: “Eastern Cape man arrested for rape of 12-year-old girl”.

That article begins: “A 27-year-old man was arrested in Butterworth, in the Eastern Cape, on Sunday for allegedly raping a 12-year-old girl, police said.” There is no mention of the man being a Pirates player.

And no credible news reports of Orlando Pirates terminating a player’s contract after his arrest for the rape of a child can be found.
 

Photo  is five years old


Trends Daily posted its story on all three of its Facebook pages. The photo in the post shows a handcuffed man climbing into the back of a South African police van.

But a reverse image search shows the photo has been online since at least 2014.

It was used in an EWN news report, dated 10 November 2014, on the arrest of police officers in Parow in the Western Cape province. – Mary Alexander (21/02/19)
 


 

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