It’s the time of year for people to play practical jokes and today was no different.
Kenya’s leading Daily Nation newspaper published a false report claiming that Egypt and Senegal will have a rematch for the World Cup qualifiers. The Egyptian Football Association (EFA) has appealed to Fifa over what they termed mistreatment in Senegal. Fifa is yet to rule on the appeal. The paper later disclosed that the report was an April Fool’s Day story.
Another Kenyan newspaper, The Star, published a fake report claiming that there will free land and interest-free loans will be given to people who take booster Covid-19 shots.
“Thousands of Kenyans who take the booster Covid-19 vaccine beginning 1 April will each win a quarter acre of prime land in Mavoko near Nairobi,” the paper falsely reported.
While Burkina Faso’s Radio Omega claimed that ousted President Roch Kaboré had been released from detention by the military authorities who overthrew him in January.
A prominent website in Burkina Faso carried the story without highlighting that it was a fake report.
In South Africa, the former leader of the country’s main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), made a dramatic announcement on a local radio station on Friday morning – that he had joined the governing African National Congress (ANC).
Mmusi Maimane also released a statement on Facebook, falsely stating he would be running to become the party’s deputy president in December 2022. He joked that President Cyril Ramaphosa had welcomed his move, saying that Mr Maimane was “the best hope that South Africa has”.
Some media publications fell for it but the politician quickly denied the reports and said that people shouldn’t “panic”.
Muted April Fools’ Day
However, not everyone was playing game.
An Angolan journalist said that it had been hard to mark this year’s April Fool’s Day because of the proliferation of “fake news”.
In an opinion piece on the state-run Jornal de Angola news website, Filomeno Jorge Manaças said it was “uncomfortable” to lie on April Fool’s Day, because “everyday reality is already full of lies”.
South Africa’s EyeWitness News website said this year’s April Fool’s Day was “muted” after South Africans “resisted” online pranks. “A number of South Africans have said that with current circumstances facing the average South African, there wasn’t much to laugh about,” the website said.
Source: BBC