posted on Wednesday evening, urged South Africans to stay indoors at 10:00 on Thursday because “there will be helicopters spraying chemicals solutions the whole South Africa (sic)”. 

It urged people to share this message, and more than 8 000 people have so far happily complied.

The page, which was created on 15 March, creates the impression that it is posting on behalf of President Cyril Ramaphosa, and is followed by nearly 80 000 people.

On Thursday morning, the South African government tweeted from its official, verified Twitter account that the post was indeed fake.

“Stop spreading #FakeNews and misleading information. Verify the information before you share information,” its tweet read.

under the guise of conducting Covid-19 home screenings.

“Please note that staff members from the Netcare Group, including from Netcare hospitals, Netcare 911 or Medicross medical and dental centres, are NOT doing door-to-door Covid-19 screenings,” Netcare said in a statement on Monday.

from unsuspecting people.

The SARB says it is not withdrawing banknotes and coins because of the pandemic.

Screenshots of  articles have also been photoshopped and widely shared on social media.