{"id":1095255,"date":"2021-12-07T15:58:33","date_gmt":"2021-12-07T20:58:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1095255"},"modified":"2021-12-07T15:58:36","modified_gmt":"2021-12-07T20:58:36","slug":"fact-check-did-the-south-african-prime-minister-deny-the-existence-of-the-omicron-variant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fact-check-did-the-south-african-prime-minister-deny-the-existence-of-the-omicron-variant\/","title":{"rendered":"FACT CHECK: Did The South African Prime Minister Deny The Existence Of The Omicron Variant?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffact-check-did-the-south-african-prime-minister-deny-the-existence-of-the-omicron-variant%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1095255&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>An image <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hemi.mahufa\/posts\/624331922102044\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">shared on Facebook<\/a> purportedly shows a tweet from South Africa\u2019s prime minister claiming there is no COVID-19 variant present in the country.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span>Verdict: False<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The South African government does not include the position of prime minister. The tweet is from an unverified account using the name of the country\u2019s minister of public enterprises.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span>Fact Check:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The omicron variant of the coronavirus was first reported in South Africa on Nov. 24, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/news\/item\/26-11-2021-classification-of-omicron-(b.1.1.529)-sars-cov-2-variant-of-concern\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">World Health Organization<\/a>. Since then, the variant has been detected in dozens of countries, including the U.S., India, Australia and Canada, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2021\/health\/coronavirus-variant-tracker.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The New York Times<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p>Now, a post claims the prime minister of South Africa is calling into question the variant\u2019s existence. The image shows a screen grab of a tweet from a Twitter user with the screen name \u201cPrime Minister\u201d that reads in part, \u201cLies lies we are fine here in SA no variant nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSA Prime minister says there is no new South African variant, it\u2019s all lies,\u201d reads text included in the image. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/checkyourfact.com\/2021\/11\/30\/fact-check-world-economic-forum-report-omicron-variant-july\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/checkyourfact.com\/2021\/11\/30\/fact-check-world-economic-forum-report-omicron-variant-july\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1638988142264000&amp;usg=AOvVaw06trLCAksOXjHTcOylFf6t\">(RELATED: Did The World Economic Forum Report On The Omicron Variant In July?)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The screen grabbed tweet, however, did not originate with the country\u2019s prime minister. In fact, South Africa has no prime minister position within its governmental structure, according to the South African government\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.za\/about-government\/government-system\/structure-and-functions-south-african-government\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">website<\/a>. Rather, the country is led by President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thepresidency.gov.za\/speeches\/statement-president-cyril-ramaphosa-progress-national-effort-contain-covid-19-pandemic-7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">openly acknowledged<\/a> the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thepresidency.gov.za\/speeches\/statement-president-cyril-ramaphosa-progress-national-effort-contain-covid-19-pandemic-7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">existence<\/a> of the omicron variant in his country.<\/p>\n<p>The tweet in question stems from an unverified Twitter user with the handle <a href=\"https:\/\/mobile.twitter.com\/Jamnandasgodan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@Jamnandasgodan<\/a> whose profile picture is a photo of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.za\/about-government\/contact-directory\/pravin-jamnadas-gordhan-mr-0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pravin Jamnadas Gordhan<\/a>, South Africa\u2019s minister of public enterprises. While the user utilizes the screen name \u201cPrime Minister,\u201d there is no indication the account is linked to any government official.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPrime Minister of the Republic of South Africa,\u201d reads the account\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/mobile.twitter.com\/Jamnandasgodan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">bio<\/a>. \u201cRogue Unit Founder. Above the Law.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Check Your Fact searched Godhan\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.za\/search?search_query=omicron\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">government website<\/a> but found nothing resembling the message within the tweet. The minister of public enterprises also openly acknowledged the existence of the variant when discussing its impact on the South African economy in a Nov. 26 interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/videos\/2021-11-26\/south-africa-s-gordhan-on-covid-variant-saa-sale-video-kwg8ufav\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bloomberg<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An image shared on Facebook purportedly shows a tweet from South Africa\u2019s prime minister claiming there is no COVID-19 variant present in the country.Verdict: False The South African government does &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1095255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1095255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1095255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1095255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1095255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}