SAPS is the acronym for the South African Police Service, and Beitbridge is a border crossing between South Africa and neighbouring Zimbabwe (archived here).
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South African accounts widely circulated the post, which was initially published by a Nigerian-based account that shares content disparaging the Igbo people, an ethnic group in Western Africa.
The post includes a photo of a man covering his face being escorted by police, a man handcuffed with his back turned, and several objects labelled “Superpower 90”.
Social media users liked the post more than 2,800 times, with several individuals writing xenophobic or violent messages about Nigerians.
“Always Nigerians,” wrote one user, while another suggested the police should have killed the individual.
Anti-foreigner sentiment is a burning issue in South Africa, which saw its jobless rate rise to a near record in the second quarter of 2024 at 33.5 percent.
In a recent, high-profile example, backlash to the Nigerian heritage of 23-year-old Chidimma Adetshina forced the pageant queen to withdraw from South Africa’s beauty competition over concerns “for the safety and wellbeing” of the contestant and her family (archived here).
But the claim that SAPS arrested a Nigerian trying to smuggle explosives into South Africa is false.
Police statement
Some of the replies pointed out that similar claims have been doing the rounds for a while, including on this 2022 X post (archived here).
AFP Fact Check contacted the South African authorities, who confirmed no recent arrests at Beitbridge for explosives smuggling.
“The police in Musina do not have any records matching your inquiry,” said police spokesman Colonel Malesa Ledwaba.
AFP Fact Check ran a reverse image search and found that two images in the post show unrelated incidents in South Africa.
The first image in the false post shows a man escorted from a police vehicle.
AFP Fact Check found that the original photo on the official SAPS Facebook page shows the aftermath of a 2016 looting incident during civil unrest in Tshwane, a municipality almost 500 kilometres from Beitbridge (archived here).
The third image claims to show the confiscated explosives.
AFP Fact Check found that SAPS published the original image following the 2022 arrest of a Zimbabwean man who tried to smuggle explosives across the Beitbridge border crossing (archived here).
AFP has not yet traced the second image showing the handcuffed man.
In the 2022 statement, SAPS details an incident similar to the one described in the false post.
“The concerted efforts by the police at the Beitbridge Border Post…continue to yield positive results following the arrest of a 33-year-old suspect in the early hours of Saturday, 23 July 2022 for attempting to smuggle commercial explosives into the country,” reads the announcement.
AFP Fact Check has debunked several claims targeting Nigerians in South Africa, which you can read here.
David Turner is a globe-trotting journalist who brings a global perspective to our readers. With a commitment to shedding light on international events, he explores complex geopolitical issues, offering a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
