{"id":1458527,"date":"2022-04-29T18:59:43","date_gmt":"2022-04-29T22:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1458527"},"modified":"2022-04-29T18:59:46","modified_gmt":"2022-04-29T22:59:46","slug":"fact-check-did-the-south-african-transportation-minister-say-potholes-produce-very-good-drivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fact-check-did-the-south-african-transportation-minister-say-potholes-produce-very-good-drivers\/","title":{"rendered":"FACT CHECK: Did The South African Transportation Minister Say, \u2018Potholes Produce Very Good Drivers\u2019?"},"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\">28<\/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-transportation-minister-say-potholes-produce-very-good-drivers%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=1458527&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:\/\/archive.ph\/O4Gl9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">shared on Facebook<\/a> claims South African Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula said that \u201cpotholes produce very good drivers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Verdict: False<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>There is no evidence that Mbalula made such a remark. The claim stems from an article on a satirical website.<\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Fact Check:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Facebook post features an image of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.parliament.gov.za\/person-details\/203\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mbalula<\/a> along with an alleged quote of his that reads, \u201cIt is not important to know how many potholes we have in this country. What is important is the fact that these potholes produce very good drivers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There is no record of the South African minister making such a statement. No such quote appears on his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.transport.gov.za\/newsroom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">website<\/a> or on his verified <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/search?q=pothole%20(from%3AMbalulaFikile)&#038;src=typed_query\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Twitter account<\/a>. There are likewise no <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=best+drivers+in+south+africa+potholes&#038;oq=best+drivers+in+south+africa+potholes&#038;aqs=chrome..69i57j69i61j69i60j69i61.5494j0j7&#038;sourceid=chrome&#038;ie=UTF-8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">credible news reports<\/a> that attribute the statement to the minister.<\/p>\n<p>Mbalula addressed the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MbalulaFikile\/status\/1517214869174599681\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">claim<\/a> on Twitter, calling it \u201cfake news.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Fake news \u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/tX9oU2YPJG\">pic.twitter.com\/tX9oU2YPJG<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 FIKILE MBALULA | MR FIX (@MbalulaFikile) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MbalulaFikile\/status\/1517214869174599681?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 21, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The transportation minister said in a March 12 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MbalulaFikile\/status\/1502644594185494535\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tweet<\/a> that roads \u201cat the provincial and regional level require attention\u201d and called on government officials to work with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nra.co.za\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">South African National Roads Agency<\/a> (SANRAL) to improve the country\u2019s infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>The viral image stems from an article published by the website <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/bhiE4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Clownsinsuits.com<\/a>, which identifies itself as a \u201csatirical newspaper and website.\u201d The article in question includes text at the bottom that reads, \u201cIf it looks like satire and it sounds like satire, then it\u2019s probably satire.\u201d The Facebook image includes no such Disclaimer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An image shared on Facebook claims South African Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula said that \u201cpotholes produce very good drivers.\u201dVerdict: False There is no evidence that Mbalula made such a remark.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":1481049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1458527","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\/1458527","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\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1458527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1481049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1458527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1458527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1458527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}