Video shows hate crime in Brazil, not a farm attack in South Africa

Since South Africa launched a case against Israel at The Hague for what it called “genocidal” acts in Gaza, some social media users have responded with misleading claims about attacks against the country’s white farmers. One post includes a widely shared video purporting to show a white South African farmer being assaulted. However, this is false; the video was filmed in Brazil in 2020, not in South Africa.

“South Africa – More disturbing footage from the racist pro Hamas country as we see a white farmer being viciously assaulted with weapons by savages linked to Julius Malema’s EFF,” reads a post on X published on January 19, 2024.

The EFF, or Economic Freedom Fighters, is South Africa’s third-largest political party, led by Julius Malema.

The 20-second video, which has no audio, shows a man in his underwear trying to fend off blows from assailants beating him with sticks.

Screenshot of the false X post, taken on January 22, 2024

Many users believed the claim was true, leading to some inflammatory anti-migrant replies in the comments. Others, however, disputed the claim.

A US account that promotes anti-migrant rhetoric shared one of the more viral posts.

The post — which has since been deleted — caught the attention of Busting The Myth Of White Genocide SA, a group dedicated to dispelling claims of “white genocide” in the country.

The group wrote on X: “Thanks to @eclipsethis2003, 2.1 Million people worldwide now think the South Africa White Farmer Genocide is happening (archived here). He used a muted clip from Brazil, of darker skinned men beating Luis Carlos Oliveira and lied saying it was a targeted Boer Farmer in the video (sic).”

Screenshot of the X post from Busting the Myth of White Genocide SA, blurred by AFP Fact Check

Brazil 2020

Reverse image searches of keyframes from the video, as well as keyword searches in Portuguese, led to articles (here and here) about the widely reported Brazilian case (archived here, here and here).

According to Brazilian media, in February 2020, a man was beaten and tortured by a group of four men in Serra Branca, Cariri da Paraíba. Police believed that the crime had homophobic motivations.

At the time, authorities told local media they had arrested two suspects linked to the crime. The victim was a 42-year-old teacher who was lured to a secluded place and tortured.

Paraíba police confirmed to AFP Fact Check on January 24, 2024, that the video relates to the 2020 case.

South African farmers

The level of violence against farmers and farm workers is a hotly contested topic in South Africa that often makes international headlines. AFP previously reported here about the backlash after former US president Donald Trump posted about the issue.

Some international commenters have recently latched on to the subject after South Africa took the unprecedented move of asking the International Court of Justice for binding preliminary orders to compel Israel to stop its military campaign in Gaza where more than 25,700 people have died, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

AFP Fact Check has debunked numerous false claims about farm murders in South Africa, including here, here, here and here.