No South Africa, Joburg metro police did not arrest foreigners with stolen traffic lights – old video recycled to fuel xenophobia
IN SHORT: A series of posts on social media claim that Johannesburg’s metro police arrested five foreigners found in possession of stolen traffic lights. But the metro police have debunked this. The clip shared as proof is from an operation two years ago, unrelated to foreign migrants in the city.
Multiple posts going viral on South African social media in May 2026 claim that the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) have arrested foreign migrants for being in possession of stolen property.
The posts include some variation of the claim that five people from nearby African countries were found with stolen traffic lights, known as “robots” in South Africa, and were arrested. Most posts also said the group would be facing charges relating to infrastructure damage and to being in South Africa illegally.
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All posts include a short video clip, an image or a series of images that appear to show a uniformed JMPD officer throwing a traffic light onto a pile of lights. The posts accumulated substantial engagement on Facebook and X before the JMPD issued a public response. Here’s what we know.
(Note: See more examples of these posts at the end of this report.)
No arrests, no stolen robots, no foreigners involved
On 17 May, the JMPD issued a statement via its official Facebook account addressing the claim. In it, they clarified:
The post falsely claims that JMPD officers recently arrested five illegal foreign nationals found in possession of stolen traffic lights. The JMPD wishes to categorically state that this information is untrue. No such arrests were made, and the narrative attached to the visuals is completely fabricated.
The statement confirmed that the clip was not recent, clarifying that it “dates back two years”, and saying it showed the end of an “operation where the then JMPD Deputy Director of Region F 1 … cleared the Johannesburg CBD [central business district] roadway of damaged traffic lights”.
Specifically, in the clip the officer can be seen offloading and discarding the broken robots at a designated depot, to be safely disposed of, according to the statement.
The video is not related to any arrest, does not show stolen traffic lights, and does not point to an incident involving foreigners.
Look out for common disinformation tactics
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Attaching old images or footage to an unverified claim is a common practice used by people spreading false information online. Africa Check has debunked several claims in South Africa where videos and images have been taken out of context to spread xenophobic narratives.
If you come across a video or image that apparently shows an arrest, crime scene or police operation, here are some ways you can verify it:
- Take a step away: Think about what the post is trying to make you feel or think, and why the accounts sharing it might be doing so. Is someone getting lots of engagement on social media because of this post, or can someone make money from it being shared?
- Check sources: Look at who is sharing the content. Are they a reliable source of information? Here, some posts began with “Breaking News“, but were posted by accounts that had nothing to do with journalism, and did not provide a link to an article or any reporting about the incident.
- Cross-reference: What do trusted news outlets and relevant authorities say? Here, a quick look at the official Facebook account of the Johannesburg metro police was enough to debunk the claim.
- Find the origin: Try to find out where and when the image or video was taken. The easy tools in this guide might help.
This claim was also posted here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.