Claim: South Africans are removing Africans from public hospitals
Source: Social media
Verdict: Misleading
Researched by Alfa Shaban
Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, confirmed a telephone call with his South African counterpart, Ronald Lamola, hours after reports in the media and on social media showed a Ghanaian migrant being sternly questioned by a group of South Africans.
“I called him on the trending videos about Ghanaians coming under extremely disturbing xenophobic attacks in South Africa,” Ablakwa said. The Minister also confirmed that the Ghanaian migrant had been contacted by consular officers and was receiving necessary assistance.
Aside from the viral video Ablakwa referred to, another xenophobia-related video (archived here) went viral after being shared by Ghanaian social media accounts and amplified by some media houses. In this video, a group of South Africans are seen ordering all non-citizens to leave a public hospital and seek healthcare in private facilities.
RelatedNews
In the video, a man leading a group into the hospital is heard saying: “If you know that you are not a South African citizen, may you please stand up and leave our hospital. Thank you very much… If you are not a South African citizen, please leave our hospital. You need to go and seek medical attention from a private facility, not here anymore…
“Anyone who is not a South African citizen, just because they are at this site, please stabilise them. After they have been stabilised, you can discharge them. These people, they have too much privileges … It ends here, and it ends now,” he added.
GhanaWeb, BBC Pidgin and yen.com.gh published news articles from the video relating to current events in the country, where a resurgence of periodic xenophobic attacks targeting African nationals has been reported.
Fact-check
GhanaFact took a keyframe from the video and ran it through Google Reverse Image Search function. We found that the video first appeared online in 2025.
An extended version of the trending video was first posted on YouTube on August 6, 2025, by the Reality Street Talk page, known for posting content on the ‘South Africans First’ ideology.
We found that the hospital in question was in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of the country.
On August 10, 2025, Zambian Watchdog, a news organisation, posted a snippet from the original video.
The over five-minute video had the branding of Reality Street Talk with a caption that read in part: “XENOPHOBIA CONTINUES: SOUTH AFRICANS CHASE PATIENTS FROM HOSPITALS. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is deeply concerned by the persistent and systematic physical blocking of non-South Africans from accessing healthcare, including pregnant women, people living with HIV, chronic patients and children – particularly in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.”
These hospital raids were part of an anti-foreigner campaign spearheaded by the opposition party, Patriotic Alliance. The activities of these people were subsequently condemned by the government and halted by a court order.
Video 2
Another hospital raid video was circulated, seemingly buttressing the position that the raids were a current trend. In this video, a young man was captured asking all non-South Africans to immediately leave a medical facility. A number of women are seen complying with his order.
This video was shared by a Ghanaian influencer on X, who branded the video with his initial, and amplified by other accounts across other platforms.
Fact-check
Again, GhanaFact took a keyframe from the video and ran it through Reverse Image Search and found that the video first appeared online in September 2025. This was also connected with similar hospital raids last year.
Verdict
Both videos and the attached claims are therefore rated as misleading because even though the videos are real, they are not connected to current events.
