South Africa: Video Shows Crowd Marching After Child Died in South Africa, Not Post-Election Protests in Tanzania

19 November 2025
Africa Check (Johannesburg)
By Makinia Juma Sylvia

Video shows crowd marching after child died in South Africa, not post-election protests in Tanzania

IN SHORT: A video of a large crowd in the middle of a street has been posted on Facebook, with users claiming that it shows post-election protests in Tanzania. However, the video was taken during a march in Durban, South Africa. It has no connection to the protests that erupted in Tanzania on election day.

"Protests IN Tanzania show good cooperation between protesters and Police," reads a caption to a video posted on Facebook.

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It shows a large crowd singing and chanting in the middle of a street. Some officers in uniform can be seen at the beginning of the video, seemingly leading the crowd.

Tanzania held its general election on 29 October 2025. Protests erupted across the country on the same day as key opposition leaders had been barred from the presidential race.

Local and international news outlets reported cases of vandalism, death and violence. The Tanzanian government responded by imposing a curfew and internet restrictions, with police reportedly using tear gas and live ammunition to control crowds.

The claim that the video is from Tanzania also appears here and here. In some instances, users claim that "The situation in Tanzania is getting worse and worse as time goes".

But does it really show Tanzanian protesters calmly cooperating with local police during the country's post-election demonstrations? We checked.

Video from South Africa

Africa Check took keyframes from the video and ran them through a reverse image search. The results led us to similar videos posted on social media platforms such as TikTok and Facebook on 27 October, two days before Tanzania's election.

On X, the video has an isiZulu caption that reads: "Izinkumbi zabantu zimashele esakhiweni i Homii enkabeni yedolobha iTheku zifuna lesisakhiwo ukuba sikhiphe imfanekiso ye CCTV ebonisa ukuthi kwenzekani ngosuku okwalimala ngalo amawele akwa Dlamini."

This roughly translates to: "Crowds of people marched to the Homii building in the Durban city centre, demanding the building release CCTV footage showing what happened on the day the Dlamini twins were injured."

A closer look at the video shows a building marked Pioneer Place along the protest route, as well as storefronts of food outlets Debonairs Pizza and Steers.

We looked for these landmarks on Google Maps and found that the video was shot on West Street in Durban, a city in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province.

The crowd was demanding justice after an incident at a residential building, where eight-year-old twins Aphelele and Aphile Dlamini plunged down a lift shaft. Aphelele died in that incident.

The circulating video is from Durban in South Africa, not Tanzania.

Read the original story, with links and other resources.
Africa Check is a non-partisan organisation which promotes accuracy in public debate and in the media. Twitter @AfricaCheck and www.africacheck.org

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