Africa Check has spent four months fact-checking South Africa’s top three political parties ahead of elections on 8 May. Here’s why this work is important.
South Africans will vote on 8 May 2019. Africa Check has spent the last four months fact-checking the top three political parties election manifestos. It is not easy or quick work.
Our first step is always to contact the political parties and ask for the evidence they’ve based their claims on. Once we have this we compare it to the most recent and reliable research on the topic.
We then speak to experts and academics for context or analysis. We reach a verdict and then send it back to the political parties. We tell them what we found, we tell them why and we ask if they would like to comment. This can take three hours, three weeks or three months.
*The views of the above article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Africa Speaks 4 Africa or its editorial team.