By: Fasil Aregay
Claim: Girum Chala, a Journalist in Ethiopia, claims: ‘The very first Rolls-Royce Spectre in Africa Arrived in Addis Ababa’.
Verdict: The claim is false because Ethiopia is not the very first Africa country to import the luxury Rolls Royce (RR) electric vehicle.
On June 18, 2024, Girum Chala, a Journalist working as a Correspondent for China Global Television Network (CGTN) with more than 4.1k followers on Facebook, shared a post claiming: “The very first Rolls Royce Spectre in Africa arrived in Addis Ababa” (see below screenshot).
The post, which carried a couple of pictures and a 39 second video in the post, received 276 reactions, 70 comments, and also five shares.
After the examination of this Facebook post, MultiFactCheck (MFC) determined that the information contained in the post is false.
According to an online publication report from South African, Zimbabwe has been the first African country to receive Rolls-Royce specter in 2024. Zimbabwean businessman Wicknell Chivayo was reportedly the first African to buy the new luxury electric vehicle that costed $470,000 (for more information read here and here, watch this video here).
Additionally, on April 28, 2024, a Nigerian online entertainment site reported that popular Nigerian singer Davido’s Rolls-Royce Spectre had arrived in Nigeria. Afrobeats star Davido is one of Africa’s most prominent musicians contributing to the global popularity of Afrobeats. Thus, his wealth comes from a successful music career including earnings from concert, online streaming and getting paid to promote products (read more here).
Therefore, based on MFC’s findings, the Facebook post claiming the first Rolls-Royce in Africa arrived in Addis Ababa is false.
Context:
A few months ago the Ethiopian government implemented a ban on the importation of fuel powered cars for private use (watch video here). According to reports and announcements, the Ethiopian government had a plan to introduce 148,000 electric cars and close to 5,000 electric buses on to its road between 2020 – 2030 (read more details here).
Reports indicate Ethiopia has siginficant potential to produce hydroelectric power. However, the local demands of electricity and lack of infrastructure such as charging stations remain thee bone of contention.
Mis/disinformation has become a major challenging issue in Ethiopia, be it in a sociopolitical or economic sectors – including the claimed by Girum Chala. This shows no one is immune from mis/disinformation, even including journalists. Thus, MFC advice for journalists to do their homework on verifiying if a claim is true or false before distributing to the public. This way, journalists play a crucial role in combating mis/disinformation by fact-checking claims and promoting accurate information.
