Every year since 2013, Africa Check has fact-checked South Africa's state of the nation address (Sona) - the speech the president delivers in February to mark the beginning of the political calendar, officially open parliament, summarise the government's aims for the year ahead, and recap the one gone by.

After all these years, our researchers can often guess what the president is going to say, long before he opens his mouth.

We can't see the future, and no one is sneaking us a copy of the speech in advance. But our team spends the weeks beforehand tracking down data on social grants, housing, unemployment and other major topics so that when the president brings them up, the facts are already right in front of us.

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This is one part of a technique called "pre-bunking", which involves providing accurate information to pre-empt false claims, rather than waiting to respond as they come up.

Here's how we do it, and how you can get involved while watching this year's Sona.

The ideas behind pre-bunking are not new, but older or more academic resources will probably refer to it as "inoculation theory". First developed in the 1960s, it suggests that protecting a society against false information can be like protecting the body against disease.

Sometimes, the best way to fight a disease is by diagnosing it early and using medications that kill it or lessen its symptoms. In the world of fact-checking, this might be...

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