An article published on the Waza news website on February 15, 2023 claims to show the impact of the recent fatal floods in South Africa.
Background
Parts of South Africa indeed recently experienced fatal floods, especially in February 2023. According to a report by eNCA, the floods led to the death of 12 people, with Kruger National Park being among the hardest hit areas.
The use of images from previous cases of climate change crises to supposedly show more recent or ongoing cases is seemingly a rising trend in the spread of misinformation. Piga Firimbi previously debunked such cases in fact-checks published here, here and here.
Verification
Results from Google reverse image searches show that all images published on the article by Waza news website are not connected to the recent floods in South Africa. In fact, the main image is actually from the Democratic Republic of Congo, as initially published in December 2015 here. See screengrab below;
According to a Google image reverse search, the second image featured in the Waza article, while indeed from South Africa, is not from recent events but from April 2022 as published here, here and here.
The third image in the article is also from the South Africa floods April 2022 as published here. So is the last image featured in the Waza article, as published in an article published by CBS News on April 14, 2022.
Verdict
Images used in the article published on the Waza news website to supposedly show the impact of recent floods in South Africa are MISLEADING.
This fact-check was produced by Africa Uncensored with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck, the International Fact-Checking Network, and the African Fact-Checking Alliance network.
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