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Despite multiple comments confirming that no such event was taking place in South Africa, others who responded to the message seemed to want to say that this was possible.
The account of the original publication was followed via a screenshot of a report by South African news channel Newzroom Afrika.
A YouTube video by Newsroom Afrika included an interview with the spokesperson of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), who said on January 6, 2024, that Ramaphosa would not be available for safe activities at the two-day assembly of the party’s National Executive Committee. due to an unspecified urgency (archived here).
When this opened the door to speculation about Ramaphosa’s health, his spokesman Vincent Magwenya stated on X that the president “decided to spend the rest of the day at home ahead of a busy week (archived here)”.
A malicious rumor is circulating about the president’s health and his hospitalization. The president is fine, he has never been hospitalized and there has been no emergency. He attended an assembly and will spend the rest of the day at home before a busy week. .
– Vincent Magwenya (@SpokespersonRSA) January 7, 2024
Account X guilty of those claims publishes various conspiracy theories about American politics and celebrities. The account is also verified and adds here, here, and here (archived here, here, and here).
Similar claims related to martial law in South Africa were also shared on Telegram and Facebook, as well as in a voice note attacking those who questioned the veracity of the alleged EBS/EAS alert.
However, those claims are false.
AFP Fact Check contacted the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to verify the claims.
“From our side, there is nothing like it, and we consider it a ghost and a hoax,” said SANDF spokesman Siphiwe Dlamini, who showed that there was never a military base in Parys, “except for a commando unit, an informal unit. “structure”. -which was discontinued some time ago. “
The commando groups were made up of members of the network to provide security in rural areas. They were run by former apartheid security agents and were disbanded from 2003 onwards (archived here).
“People want to be cautious and not what they see or hear on social media platforms. There’s a lot of incorrect information out there,” Dlamini said.
On 2 January 2024, the SANDF distanced itself from comments made through a former naval officer, Sylvester Mangolele, who had threatened to remove Ramaphosa from office for “making the country fail” (archived here).
Mangolele had given Ramaphosa 48 hours to go to Gordon’s Bay Naval College in the Western Cape and tender his resignation.
In its response, the SANDF said Mangolele ignored it in 2018.
“SANDF condemns Sylvester Mangolele’s comments with the contempt they deserve. His comments do not reflect or constitute the SANDF in any way,” it reads.
As of the publication on January 26, 2024, South Africa remains under civil law.
Andrew Mortimer, who heads the Police Emergency Incident Control (EPIC) formula in Cape Town, said there is no genuine formula for alerting the country’s civilians in the event of an emergency, although this would be imaginable with the telecommunications networks available.
EPIC is an internal formula that was delivered in late 2016 and communicates with all city agencies, adding the “Cape Town Metropolitan Police Department, Traffic Services, Law Enforcement, Disaster Risk Management, Fire and Rescue and Emergency Public Contacts. “And it’s a transactional formula that handles virtually every single department. “
Mortimer said regional emergency management systems differ from one municipality to the next, “but none of them broadcast to citizens”.
And while there are lately apps in development that can work only with civilians on a regional scale, none yet exist on a national scale.
Mortimer added that there are networks between localities and provincial departments, which have been strengthened by the Covid-19 pandemic.
During the pandemic — while the country was under a National State of Disaster — the presidency communicated when Ramaphosa would be speaking to the nation and this would be broadcast on television, radio and official social media accounts (archived here).
In the United States, the Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national public alert formula used by state and local governments to provide emergency data (archived here).
“We have those historic occasions in terms of martial law. “
Johan Wassermann, a professor of history at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, said there were notable examples of martial law restrictions before the Union of South Africa (in 1910), as well as the miners’ measures in 1922 under the command of Jan Smuts.
“We have those historic occasions in terms of martial law, where under some kind of military rule and the rule of law is suspended, but there are no new examples of that in real life in South Africa,” Wassermann said.
Wassermann also said he believes it would be highly unlikely to happen in the near future.
Meanwhile, Ramaphosa was seen loose and healthy on Jan. 26, 2024, in reaction to a ruling by the International Court of Justice that Israel do everything in its power to prevent any acts of genocide in Gaza.
Reaction of the #ICJ#ANCNEC after the ruling. #sabcnewspic. twitter. com/GBihZp0TBQ
— #LordOfTheMedia (@samkelemaseko) January 26, 2024
Presidential elections will be held in South Africa between May and August.