South Africa: Ignore AI-Generated Image of ANC Leader Ramaphosa 'Buying Votes' Ahead of South African Polls

An image circulated on social media and used as a YouTube thumbnail purported to show South African President and ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa leaning out of a car window and throwing cash to people; the post was first shared by Renaldo Gouws on 2026-10-26 and was used to allege vote-buying ahead of local elections. The image does not appear in the accompanying video. Fact-checkers reported the image is fabricated and likely AI-generated: they cited visual inconsistencies (oddly shaped banknotes, inconsistent lighting, malformed hands) and said an upload to SynthID returned a high probability that the image was made or edited with AI tools.

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