News report of 16 girls rescued from alleged human traffickers in South Africa is from 2016
IN SHORT: A video circulating on TikTok in April 2025 claims that 16 girls were recently rescued from Nigerian human trafficking kingpins in Kempton Park, South Africa. But this is misleading - the footage is from 2016, and no official source confirmed the nationality of the perpetrators.
A video circulating widely on social media in April and May 2025 shows a news report by South African broadcaster eNCA.
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The report tells the story of 16 young girls who have been rescued from a house after being "abused and starved".
The text at the top of the video reads: "16 Girl rescued from Nigerian human trafficking kingpins in Kempton Park South Africa." It is presented as though it is a breaking news story.
Kempton Park is a large town in Gauteng province, South Africa.
The video has a split screen showing the news report on the left and a man sitting on a couch on the right, appearing to be reacting to the news footage.
The report also shows two officials from the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the Hawks, the directorate for priority crime investigation.
The video originated on TikTok, but the claim has been republished widely on Facebook, including here, here, here, here and here.
But this incident did not take place in April 2025, as suggested online.
A rescue - but not recent
An online search of keywords from the claim brought up the original report posted by eNCA on YouTube on 15 July 2016.
The details in the circulating video matched those in the original one: 16 girls from all over South Africa were rescued by police in Kempton Park after being kidnapped, drugged and forced into sex work for months.
According to the SAPS officer, one of the victims said she was brought to the house by "the Nigerians". This is a single victim's statement. The news reporter said four men were arrested but did not mention their nationalities.
Other news outlets that reported on the incident around the same time also did not specify the nationalities of the suspects. The official statement from the SAPS did not mention their nationalities.
This video is being republished out of context, a tactic commonly used on social media to generate outrage, fear or clicks. Africa Check has previously debunked many such claims, where old videos, often related to crime and migrants, are presented as recent.
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How to check if a video is authentic or recent
- Take screenshots from the video and use tools like Google Reverse Image Search to check where and when a video first appeared.
- Look for official statements from police or credible news sources before believing or sharing sensational claims.
- Be aware that claims targeting specific nationalities without clear evidence can fuel harmful stereotypes.
Africa Check has investigated dozens of misleading or false claims like this. If you see something suspicious, let us know - we may be able to look into it.
