CLAIM: Pres Mnangagwa humiliated again as he addresses empty chairs at UN Summit
SOURCE: Mbire TV
VERDICT: False
A page called Mbire TV posted a video showing a still picture of President Emmerson Mnangagwa allegedly addressing the 78th United Nations General Assembly.
The voice over, in Shona, on the video claims that, ‘Nhasi vanga varipakati pevatungamiriri venyika dzepasi rose dzirikupinda musangano we United Nations General Assembly wechimakumi manomwe nemasere’. Loosely translated, this says, ‘Today he was part of world leaders who are attending the 78th United Nations General Assembly’.
Nkulumane National Assembly representative, Desire Moyo, in a post on Facebook, said, ‘Our story, no one wants to hear it… We need to send someone!’ The caption was of a picture of President Mnangagwa addressing a sparsely attended meeting.
The post, however, unlike the Mbire TV one, did not explicitly claim that the picture was of President Mnangagwa addressing the United Nations General Assembly 78th session.
FactCheckZW took a screenshot of the video and conducted a reverse image search.
Although the picture was not clear enough to show the words on the meeting banner, it did return a hit on Google reverse image search showing the COP26 Summit.
A search of COP26 showed videos of President Mnangagwa addressing the Summit in 2021, here and here.
The videos clearly show that the still picture on the Mbire TV claim was from this summit.
A reverse image search of the Facebook picture also showed that this was not a current picture, but from the 74th session of UNGA.
The President is set to deliver his speech on September 21, according to the state owned Herald newspaper, here and South African based News24’s newspaper article.
On 20 September, he, instead, addressed the UN High level meeting on pandemic prevention. The UN High-Level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response (PPPR) presents an opportunity for Member States to further mobilize political momentum, including through the integration of a multisectoral approach towards pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, given the multifaceted consequences of pandemics.
Conclusion
Claims that President Mnangagwa addressed the 78th summit, empty or otherwise, are false as he is yet to deliver his address, scheduled for 21 September 2023.
