IN SHORT: Photos circulating on South African social media claim to show a Johannesburg city street before and after “foreigners” were removed from it. But the image used to show the transformed street has been online since at least 2024, and shows a different street in the city.
In October 2025, the sudden shut-down of Dunusa, an informal clothes market in Johannesburg’s central business district, made news headlines as part of a reported mayoral campaign to “clean up” the city.
The popular market was previously shut down by the city’s metropolitan police, the JMPD, in 2022, but this was overturned in court and the market re-established. In October 2025, a similar legal battle was launched by the Socio-Economic Rights Institute, the same legal non-profit that previously challenged the eviction.
The JMPD reportedly said the eviction was “in response to persistent safety, public health and urban management concerns”, and that it aimed to “clear out the whole area” of informal traders.
Johannesburg’s mayor Dada Morero posted on X that the operation “targeted illegal trading and immigration law violations”. The market is associated with foreign-born traders from other African countries. Morero also posted progress photos of the operation, including of trees being planted on the street where the market had been located.
But other social media users posted different photos, claiming to show the transformation of the Johannesburg streets after the removal of the market stalls by the metro police.
These photos were circulated across South African Facebook and X accounts, with some gaining substantial popularity or engagement from official city bodies, such as the Johannesburg Road Agency.
Some posts contrasted photos of a relatively empty clean-looking street with photos of the busy market area. Others only posted photos claiming to show the cleared street after the operation.
Some of the posts read: “Devilliers Street Known as Kodunusa looking different after remove foreigners ,well done JMPD.” Another read: “Streets of Johannesburg || Before And After Well Done 👏 JMPD ❤️.”
While various images of the market were used for the supposed “before” image, all the posts included one specific image to show the transformed street: A photo of a sole pedestrian crossing the street on a rainy day, against the background of a clean-looking road filled with minibus taxis and lined with tall buildings.
But the image was circulating long before the JMPD operation.
A different street in a different year
A reverse image search revealed that the photo of the woman crossing the road has been online since at least 2024. Earlier versions were found on Threads from November 2024, on X and Facebook from March 2024, and on Instagram from October of that year.
A closer look at the buildings led us to an address on Rahima Moosa Street in the centre of Johannesburg. A comparison of the street view with the photo shows identical street layout, buildings and landmarks that indicate this was the original location of the photo. This address is not where the JMPD operation took place on De Villiers Street, also in the inner city.
While the city’s metro police did clear the popular market in October 2025, the photo used to show the street after the operation was taken in a different location and predates the shut-down.
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