South Africa Did Not Deny the Existence of the Omicron Variant

Dina Faisal

Health

10th December 2021

South Africa Did Not Deny the Existence of the Omicron Variant

The tweet circulating is fabricated (Twitter).

The Claim

The Prime Minister of South Africa denies the existence of the Omicron variant.

News posted on

Emerging story

A screenshot of a tweet allegedly sent by South Africa's Prime Minister, in which he denies the existence of the Omicron variant and calls it "lies," is circulating on social media. Users shared the claim, expressing outrage at being misled about South Africa's discovery of the latest COVID-19 variant.

The South African Prime Minister says there's no African variant. We are being lied to. pic.twitter.com/Uz2eiEK4WF
— CaliforniaRealtorCristy 🏠🐸💃👮 (@RealtorCristyB) November 28, 2021

Misbar’s Analysis

The claim is false because South Africa does not have a Prime Minister. The executive authority is made up of a national cabinet, with the president as the head of state, followed by a deputy president and their ministers. On the other hand, South Africa's President, Cyril Ramaphosa himself, tweeted a picture of the Omicron variant to his verified account, which you can see below.

My Fellow South Africans,

Earlier this week, our scientists identified a new variant of the coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease. The World Health Organization has named it #Omicron and has declared it a ‘variant of concern’.https://t.co/EpfT06jNe1
— Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 (@CyrilRamaphosa) November 28, 2021

The World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed the discovery of Omicron, classifying it as a Variant of Concern.

The circulating tweet was first tweeted by Jamnandasgodan, an account with a profile picture of South Africa's Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Jamnadas Gordhan. His bio reads, “Prime Minister of the Republic of South Africa.

According to the Misbar team's findings, the claim is false; South Africa does not have a prime minister. The President announced the discovery of the Omicron variant, which has since spread to more than 50 countries.