A couple of videos shared this month on Facebook purportedly show recent lootings in shops in South Africa, while the country undergoes a 21-day lockdown to minimize the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The 43-second video shows people running into a shop at a petrol station and grabbing items before bolting out the doors., However, a Facebook search shows the video has been on the platform since at least September 4, 2019, as seen in this post., The second video gaining traction on Facebook was posted on April 2 and it reads: “People looting shops in Cape Town suburbs 😱😱 ~ Welcome to South Africa.”, "Again, an internet search shows the video in this News24 article from September 25, 2019, titled: “Brazen looters ransack Cape Town butchery, make off with carcasses.”", The article reports on footage shared on social media of people allegedly stealing animal carcasses from a butchery in Valhalla Park in Cape Town., According to this report, the butchery lootings were carried out on the prompting of local gangsters in preparation for Heritage Day celebrations, when many South Africans fire up their barbecues., Neither video is, therefore, recent., Meanwhile, a genuine incident of looting at a liquor store in Cape Town on April 5 was reported in this Independent Online article, a few days after the misleading use of the two videos on Facebook., "Elsewhere, live streams viewed by tens of thousands of people on a Kenyan Facebook page also purportedly showed a looting spree in Mexico prompted by panic over the pandemic, but the footage was actually an old video played on a loop. Read AFPs debunk here.", South Africa is halfway into the 21-day lockdown that started on March 27., , Copyright © AFP 2017-2020.  All rights reserved.  Users can access and consult this website and use the share features available for personal, private, and non-commercial purposes.  Any other use, in particular any reproduction, communication to the public or distribution of the content of this website, in whole or in part, for any other purpose and/or by any other means, without a specific licence agreement signed with AFP, is strictly prohibited.  The subject matter depicted or included via links within the Fact Checking content is provided to the extent necessary for correct understanding of the verification of the information concerned.  AFP has not obtained any rights from the authors or copyright owners of this third party content and shall incur no liability in this regard.  AFP and its logo are registered trademarks.
No, these videos do not show recent looting in South Africa | AFP Fact Check