The clip features Ramaphosa calling on countries to lift travel restrictions imposed on South Africa following the emergence of the Omicron COVID-19 variant in November 2021.
This video, shared on Facebook, supposedly of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa begging countries to lift travel bans imposed on South Africa over xenophobia, is FALSE.
“We call upon these countries that have imposed travel bans on our country to immediately and urgently reverse their decisions and lift the bans they’ve imposed before any further damage is done to the economy and to the livelihoods of our people. There is no scientific justification whatsoever for keeping these restrictions in place,” Ramaphosa says in the clip.
The accompanying text reads, “Forgive us, don’t ban us. South Africa begs for ban lift resulting from xenophobic claims.”
The wording appears to support the claim that South Africa had recently been subjected to international travel bans because of xenophobic violence.
A Google reverse image search on keyframes from the circulating video leads to an original broadcast of Ramaphosa’s address published by South Africa’s Eyewitness News on 28 November 2021.
The original video was titled “FULL SPEECH: President Ramaphosa addresses the nation on SA’s response to COVID-19.”
In his address, President Ramaphosa urged countries to lift the travel restrictions placed on South Africa following the emergence of the Omicron COVID-19 variant. His comments focused on the travel bans rather than claims of xenophobia.
The video was also published here and here.
This fact-check was produced by Julia Lemekwane as part of the African Fact-Checking Alliance’s (AFCA)incubation programme. It was produced with peer-mentorship from Code for Africa’s fact-checking initiative, PesaCheck, with financial support from Norway. AFCA mentorship respects the journalistic independence of the researchers, offering access to advanced techniques and tools. Editorial decision-making remains with Julia Lemekwane. Want to learn more? Visit: https://factcheck.africa/