The image depicts members of the anti-foreigners movement “Operation Dudula” in Johannesburg in 2022.
This Facebook post featuring an image purportedly of South African women staging a bra protest against xenophobic attacks on immigrants is FALSE.
“SOUTH AFRICA WOMEN PROTEST: ‘OUR NIGERIAN HUSBANDS ARE GOING NOWHERE.’ South African Zulu women staged a bra protest, stating that their Nigerian and Zimbabwean husbands cannot go anywhere, as they shouted yesterday that they do not want to lose their husbands due to xenophobia attacks on immigrants,” the post reads.
Google reverse image search results confirmed that the alleged image does not show the claimed event.
Getty Images published the picture in February 2022 with the caption, “Members of the anti-foreigners movement so called ‘Operation Dudula” wearing only their bra as a sign of discontent, march during a gathering in Orange Grove in Johannesburg on 13 February 2022. – South African police said they fired rubber bullets at demonstrators gathered in Johannesburg on Sunday to protest against migrant workers, also using stun grenades to try to disperse the group of around 200 people.” The photo is attributed to Guillem Sartorio of AFP.
The same picture has also been shared on different websites in the past, as seen here and here.
Reports indicate that xenophobic attacks on migrants resurfaced in parts of South Africa in 2026, with security officials warning against attacks on anti-immigration protests.
PesaCheck examined a Facebook post featuring a photo purportedly of South African women staging a bra protest against xenophobic attacks on immigrants and found it to be FALSE.
This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.
By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.
Have you spotted what you think is fake news or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.
This fact-check was written by PesaCheck fact-checker Kiya Ali and edited by PesaCheck senior copy editor Mary Mutisya and chief copy editor Stephen Ndegwa.
The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck managing editor Doreen Wainainah.
PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water / sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.
This fact-check is republished by The Besana Mail – Zim Truth Radar with the permission of Code for Africa under a partnership agreement.
This was a valuable and well-researched fact-check. I appreciate how it carefully examines the claim, presents the evidence clearly, and helps readers distinguish between misinformation and verified information. Thank you for contributing to responsible journalism and promoting media literacy through accurate and transparent reporting.