{"id":1271107,"date":"2022-02-04T13:07:27","date_gmt":"2022-02-04T18:07:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1271107"},"modified":"2022-02-04T13:07:31","modified_gmt":"2022-02-04T18:07:31","slug":"fact-check-is-south-africa-providing-free-paternity-tests-starting-in-june","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fact-check-is-south-africa-providing-free-paternity-tests-starting-in-june\/","title":{"rendered":"FACT CHECK: Is South Africa Providing Free Paternity Tests Starting In June?"},"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\">24<\/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-is-south-africa-providing-free-paternity-tests-starting-in-june%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=1271107&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>A post <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/OF4Gg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">shared on Facebook<\/a> claims all South African hospitals and clinics will offer free paternity tests starting June 2022.<\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Verdict: False<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>There is no evidence the South African Department of Health announced such a plan. A spokesperson for the department denied the claim.<\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Fact Check:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/checkyourfact.com\/2021\/12\/07\/fact-check-south-african-prime-minister-deny-variant\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Facebook post<\/a> from January 2022 claims paternity tests will be free at all medical centers in South Africa starting later this year. \u201cFrom June 2022 DNA test\/Partenity (<em>sic<\/em>) tests will be free in all hospitals and clinics in South Africa,\u201d reads the post.<\/p>\n<p>There is no evidence that such a policy has been announced. No mention of free DNA or paternity tests can be found on the South African government\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.za\/search?search_query=paternity+tests\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">website<\/a> or on the South African Department of Health\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.health.gov.za\/?s=paternity\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">website<\/a>. There is likewise no <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=free+paternity+tests+South+Africa&amp;rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS820US820&amp;source=lnms&amp;tbm=nws&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwibqq_dxeb1AhXmLTQIHcAcA8YQ_AUoAnoECAEQBA&amp;biw=1536&amp;bih=722&amp;dpr=1.25\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">credible news reporting<\/a> about such a development.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFake news,\u201d said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.health.gov.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Health-Minister-appoints-COVID-19-Appeals-Committee-04-02-2022.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Foster Mohale<\/a>, the director of media relations at South Africa\u2019s National Health Department, in an email to Check Your Fact.&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/checkyourfact.com\/2021\/12\/07\/fact-check-south-african-prime-minister-deny-variant\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(RELATED: Did The South African Prime Minister Deny The Existence Of The Omicron Variant?)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The earliest mention of this claim was published by a Twitter user on Jan. 24. The <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/danielmarven\/status\/1485529467409813505?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1485529467409813505%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thecable.ng%2Ffact-check-no-health-minister-didnt-say-there-will-be-free-dna-tests-in-government-hospitals\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tweet,<\/a> which was retweeted nearly 500 times, reads \u201cDNA tests will b conducted freely @ Government hospital n clinics as from June 2022..Ayeye!!!!!!\u201d The user doesn\u2019t specify in the tweet which country\u2019s government made the alleged announcement, but the user\u2019s bio claims the account is based in Pretoria, South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>A version of the claim was subsequently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/permalink.php?story_fbid=154401216943677&amp;id=100071213995054\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">shared on Facebook<\/a> by a South African Police Service (SAPS) parody account on Jan. 26. The post, shared nearly 100 times, reads \u201cDNA Tests Will Be done For Free At Public Hospitals And Public Clinics As From June 2022.\u201d The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=100071213995054\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">account\u2019s bio<\/a> includes a Disclaimer that states the account is \u201cUnofficial\u201d and \u201cJust for fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A post shared on Facebook claims all South African hospitals and clinics will offer free paternity tests starting June 2022.Verdict: False There is no evidence the South African Department of &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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-1271107","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\/1271107","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1271107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1271107\/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=1271107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1271107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1271107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}