Claim
On Monday 4 July 2022, Zambia Reports published a picture on their Facebook page depicting Republican President Hakainde Hichilema conferring with South-Africa based businessman, Mr. James Ndambo. The photo is purported to have been taken during President Hichilema’s five days working visit to Southern Province that started on Sunday 3 July, 2022, a day after Mr. Ndambo hosted My Hometown Beauty Pageant on Saturday 2 July 2022, in Choma. The Beauty Pageant is said to have been wholly funded by Mr. Ndambo.
After this, various media houses circulated the photo showing the two together, fueling speculations that the photograph was taken during President Hichilema’s working visit. Mr. James Ndambo is founder of My Hometown (MHT), a Choma-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) concerned with uplifting the welfare of people in Choma, his birthplace.
Rating Justification
iVerify Zambia has proven as misleading the claims published by Zambia Reports that President Hichilema met with Mr. Ndambo during his working visit to Southern Province as depicted in the picture that has been circulating on various social media platforms. In addition, the picture was not taken during his five days working visit. To arrive at this conclusion, iVerify analyzed the photograph using Ghiro Digital Imagine Forensic Analyser to establish if the photo was photo-shopped. Results of the analysis showed that the picture uploaded by Zambia Reports had not been tampered with. According to Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) website, Southern Province Minister Cornelius Mweetwa had told ZANIS that President Hichilema’s working visit would start from Mazabuka where he would attend a memorial service of the late Grandstone Natala before proceeding to Monze for the official opening of the Lwiindi Gonde Traditional ceremony for Chief Monze. Thereafter, the President would proceed to Livingstone where he was expected to officiate at the Diaspora Conference on July 8, 2022.
Therefore, the claim that President Hichilema visited Choma and had met Mr. Ndambo as depicted in a picture that is circulating on social media platforms is misleading, and the picture was not taken during the President’s working visit to Southern Province.
