South Africans were sharply divided during the recent election campaigns after a photo of an incomplete Kenyan footbridge was shared online.
According to AFP Fact Check, the photo (pictured above) was making rounds on social media of that Southern African country with parties claiming that it had set back the government 11 million Rand (Ksh75 million).
One of the memes that bore the picture captioned it as “ANC delivers” followed with laughing emoticons and a message advising the country's citizens to vote wisely.
“This is an official bridge opening in Qwaqwa it cost 11 million (rand)…can someone explain,” read a message that accompanied the meme on Facebook which was posted on April 24, 2019.
Qwaqwa is a former Bantustan or homeland in the eastern part of central South Africa and forms part of the Free State province.
Quoting Kenyans.co.ke, AFP explained that it had reverse-searched the image and established that it resulted from an earlier photo taken during an inspection of the bridge by Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua.
"But a reverse image search of the photo leads to an article published last year on the Kenyan news website Kenyans.co.ke which locates the footbridge in Machakos county, south of the country’s capital Nairobi.
"It names the source of the image as Twitter and says that the photo shows Machakos governor, Alfred Mutua, inspecting progress on the bridge while on the way to an event for solar-powered boreholes," established AFP.
In an exclusive interview with Kenyans.co.ke in 2018, Mutua divulged that he inspected the bridge adding that it was yet to be completed.
"On Tuesday I inspected a bridge crossing that is under construction and one which is only 50% done.
"This is a simple box culvert and the contract is less than one million. The bridge will be complete with guard rails etc by end of December," he told the news outlet's reporter Michael Musyoka.
