Is it true that Zelensky bought a 51% stake in the company to extract platinum in South Africa?

In early April 2025, the Russian media and Telegram channels reported a large investment of the Ukrainian president in the production of South Africa. We checked the truthfulness of this news.

It is reported that on the eve of his official visit to the South African Republic scheduled for April 10, the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky acquired a 51% stake in Northam Platinum-one of the key local companies producing Platinum and other precious metals. The amount of the transaction allegedly amounted to $ 1.6 billion. Most of these publications are accompanied by a report of the SABC News South African television channel, which, among other things, tells about the “hidden purpose” of Zelensky’s visit - talk with Northam Platinum employees, who allegedly caused a mixed reaction. The video even gives the story of one of the workers who allegedly heard of the deal.

They wrote about this "Arguments and facts" News.ru and other publications, as well as numerous Telegram channels, among which "Live broadcast"(824,000 views at the time of writing this analysis),"Sanya in Florida"(528 000),"Observer"(179 000),"Uncle Glory"(175 000),"Russia now"(166 000) and others.

In February 2025, President of South Africa Cyril Ramafos invited Vladimir Zelensky visit the country, and this invitation was accepted. However, on March 20, about two weeks before the spread of the viral plot, the South African side reportedthat at the request of Kyiv, the visit was postponed from April 10 to 24.

Company Northam PlatinumIndeed, a large South African miner of metals of a platinum group. As indicated on the company's website, as of the end of June 2024, about 69% of the shares belonged individuals and legal entities from South Africa.

“Verified” did not find in authoritative sources (including Northam Platinum) the news that Zelensky became the new controlling shareholder of the enterprise. On the official resources of the SABC News channel (site, YouTube channel, accounts in Instagram, X, Facebook And Tiktok) There is no video that Russian -speaking resources refer to. However, the authors of the video themselves are also based on materials from another media: at the 13th second, a screenshot of the publication of a certain resource of NewsDay on the investment of the Ukrainian president is visible.

Newsday - Zimbabvian newspaperemerging since 2010. March 27, on her site appeared article On the purchase of Zelensky 51% of the shares of Northam Platinum, completely repeating later viral messages. However, no additional details or links in it are given. That's just April 7, the content of the article is radically ChangedAnd now, at the same address (containing the old title), you can read the reprint of the Reuters article on the tariff policy of US President Donald Trump. Moreover, a factor from the Lead Stories project Checked The original text with the help of the AI ​​detector from Hive and found that with a probability of 99.8% it was generated using a neural network.

Not without the use of artificial intelligence and when creating a viral video. In particular, the issues of the worker at the end of the report raises questions - at some points, the sounding words clearly do not correspond to the movements of the lips of this person. "Verified" analyzed this part of the audio traffic using the service Deepfake-O-MeterThe researchers from the University of Buffalo developed to identify AIC Contain. The results of the analysis showed that the worker's voice was highly likely generated by a neural network.

We also contacted the Northam Platinum representatives. Lakmaydas rocked, Director of Strategic Communications, in response to a request “verified” about the commentary, said: “All articles in the media, video and social networks, claiming that the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky is acquired by Northam Platinum, are fake news. Northam confirms that the distribution of our shares remains unchanged. ”

April 4, when the viral video began to spread through social networks, with refutation Sabc News also performed. The TV channel said that he did not publish and did not distribute this news, which Fakeova called.

Thus, everything suggests that Zelensky’s investment reports in a platinum company in South Africa are not true and are based on the falsified materials of the African media. This news was refuted both in the company itself and on the TV channel, the logo of which was used to create a video using neural networks. The content of the article shown in the video was completely changed shortly after the news became viral. The process of its distribution began on the night of April 4, Moscow time, the earliest discovered “checked” publication - fast User X Johnny Midnight (4.3 million views). This account has previously been Caught The fact of the distribution of false information about Zelensky. A few hours later, the news picked up Russian propaganda Telegram channels.

Not the first time, this is not the first time that the closest relatives, his closest relatives, his closest relatives and his companies after the start of a full -scale war in Ukraine appear in Ukraine. "Verified" already disassembled such reports about transactions with British Britain, villas in the USA, Egypt And On the Caribbean, Bank in France, Wine in Italy, Hotel in Courchevel etc. According to some of these news, the Ukrainian president has a special weakness for the legacy of the Third Reich - he allegedly acquired Goebbels estate, and also Mountain house And Hitler's car. All this news turned out to be fakes, and the handwriting of their creators in many cases was the same: “revealing” photos, audio or video materials were legalized under the guise of investigations of foreign journalists. Subsequently, it turned out that these evidence were falsified.

Photo on the cover: President.gov.ua

Fake

What do our verdicts mean?

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