On April 7, during the TV show “Sum-Up of the Day with Nikoloz Mzhavanadze” on Season TV, war veteran Paata Abuladze claimed that on the day of the tragedy in Kryvyi Rih, Volodymyr Zelenskyy purchased a platinum mining company in the Republic of South Africa. This claim, along with a video, was also circulated on a Russian-language Facebook account. The video bears the logo of South African media outlet SABC News and claims that the President of Ukraine bought a 51% stake in the company Northam Platinum Holdings Limited. According to the circulated information, he allegedly paid approximately 27 billion South African rand, i.e., 1.6 billion US dollars for the company.
The claim that Volodymyr Zelenskyy purchased a platinum mining company is disinformation. Company representatives confirmed that the Ukrainian President does not own any shares in the enterprise. Additionally, the report allegedly produced by the South African media, SABC News, cannot be found on the outlet’s website. The audio used in the video is likely generated by artificial intelligence.
Several fact-checking organizations have verified the information about Zelenskyy allegedly acquiring yet another business. A representative of Northam Platinum Holdings Limited confirmed to PolitiFact that the claims about Zelenskyy buying shares in the company are false.
The claim was also verified by Lead Stories. A company representative again confirmed to them that Zelenskyy has not purchased any stake in the company. Ukrainian fact-checking organization StopFake also published an article on the topic.
This allegation has been circulating on the Internet since the beginning of April. Along with the text, various sources shared a video featuring the logo of South African media outlet SABC News. It is noteworthy that neither this video nor any material on the topic can be found on the SABC News website when using relevant search terms.
The video claims that Zelenskyy would arrive in South Africa on April 10 and that his visit is driven more by personal interest than diplomacy. According to the video, he allegedly paid about 27 billion South African rand, or 1.6 billion US dollars, for the company. At the end of the video, a comment is given by a person who is claimed to be an employee of Northam Platinum Holdings Limited. According to Lead Stories, which used artificial intelligence detection tools to verify the video, the voice in the video is AI-generated.
Lead Stories used two AI detection tools, DeepFake-o-Meter and InVid (Hiya), to verify the video. According to both tools, the video is highly likely to have been generated by artificial intelligence.
The video also shows a screenshot of an article published by NewsDay in Zimbabwe on March 27, 2027, titled “Zelensky’s surprising move into the mining industry.” Based on the analysis by Hive AI Detector, leadstories.com reports that this article too is most likely AI-generated.
Myth Detector has produced multiple pieces on claims about Zelenskyy acquiring various properties. The spread of such disinformation is considered to be linked to Russia and is known under the name Storm-1516.
Over the past three years, various pieces of disinformation have claimed that Zelenskyy’s family has acquired multiple luxury properties, including a villa in the Caribbean islands, a winery estate in Italy, Highgrove House in Britain, the latest Bugatti model, Cartier jewelry, and many more. Myth Detector, in collaboration with partner organizations, has prepared two reports on this topic.
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