A WhatsApp message doing the rounds today that the entire South Africa will be without electricity tomorrow is fake news.

For starters, the entire electricity grid going down would be a national disaster and almost totally impossible. Secondly, if it did happen, it would take longer than a few hours to restore electricity. It would take several weeks.

But let’s examine the actual message:

The message does not mention load-shedding or a reason. This is a good indicator that it is fake news. It also does not mention the national power utility, Eskom.

To spot fake news is easy… Go to a reputable news source like ourselves or any major national media chain and see if they are running a story like this. If not, you can take it to the bank that it is fake news.

Most importantly, if it were true, the person sending the post would link a source article for you to read!

The only sensible thing this poster did was send the message to me to ask me if it was true.

Why send out a scam message today? Well, the sudden resignation of Eskom Board chairperson Ben Ngubane has put Eskom back under the spotlight and ripe for a fake news attack!

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