March and March leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma has credited last month’s protests against migrants with freeing school places, saving the government millions in healthcare costs, saving South African lives, and reducing crime.
She also accused Somalis, Pakistanis, Ethiopians and Nigerians of conducting illegal activities through businesses and paying protection-fee mafias to kill South Africans campaigning against immigration.
Several of the claims are demonstrably false. The rest are unsupported by any figures, official findings, or disclosed evidence.
The claims appeared most prominently on SABC News, which published a short article on 3 August that repeated several claims and accompanied it with a video of Ngobese-Zuma’s full address. Its social media post aired Ngobese-Zuma’s unchecked assertion that the protests had produced “positive improvements” in government departments strained by migrants.
East Coast Radio later published a similar account under sections headed “Healthcare access improvements” and “Durban crime reduction”, despite establishing...
March and March leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma made sweeping claims about the group’s “achievements” without producing evidence. The claims were given wide exposure through the SABC network, includi...