A message that is going around on Facebook in Nigeria says that a young woman in South Africa married her own mother.
WATCH VIDEO: How To Make Money On Your Mobile Phone/Easy Mobile Money Cashout
It has a picture of two women dressed in white and holding hands at what looks like their wedding.
The message says that Lolita, a South African woman who was 26 years old and had been raised by her single mother Loretta, got married to her. Most of the versions have what are said to be quotes from the two women.
Lolita is said to have said, "My mother has been there for me since the day I was born. I didn't have a father when I was growing up, but I love my mom so much. She is all I have, and I don't want to lose her. That's why I decided to marry her and live with her. She's young and she knows how to make me happy in bed."
Loretta is said to have said, "My daughter was ready to leave the house if I didn't marry her. I love her so much and would do anything to make her happy."
Since the message first came out, it has been seen about 100,000 times across the 20 or so versions that Africa Check has seen.
Used to celebrate gay weddings when the picture was six years old.
The photo has been online since at least 2014, according to a TinEye reverse image search. It's mostly been used on sites that celebrate marriages between people of the same gender.
Gay Wedding Venues, a website based in the UK, posted the picture with the title "Gay wedding inspiration." Nobody says who the women are or when the picture was taken.
We couldn't find any proof that the woman and girl in the picture are from South Africa or that they are mother and daughter.
Story first appeared in Zambian Observer, which is often wrong.
The first sign that the story might not be true is that it doesn't say where or when this wedding supposedly happened. This makes it hard to check.
The story first showed up on the website of the Zambian Observer on May 27, 2017. In this version, the mother's name is said to be "Loreto," and the ceremony took place in Cape Town. The Zambian Observer reprinted the story on October 7, 2020, without saying that it had been printed before or adding any new information, such as how old the couple was at the time. This made the story look like it was written recently.
The Zambian Observer has printed a number of false and sometimes crazy stories, which Africa Check has shown to be false.
The story was written about again on the Nigerian website National Daily Newspaper on September 10, 2020, which was the same day that the message began to spread on Facebook. In this version, the mother is called "Loretta," and the same photo is used as in the Facebook message. Again, no information is given about when or where the wedding took place.
We couldn't find any evidence that any South African news outlets or reputable news sources had covered this story.
South Africa doesn't allow incestuous marriages.
The South African Civil Union Act of 2006 recognizes civil unions between people of the same gender. This means that gay couples have the same rights and status as heterosexual couples who are married.
But South African law says that parents and their children or siblings, as well as adopted people and their adoptive parents, can't get married legally. Section 12 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act of 2007 says that this kind of marriage is a crime.
Under South African law, the marriage that was talked about in the Facebook message would be against the law. It's also unlikely that a couple who is related by blood would have talked to the media about their wedding and let them cover it, knowing that they could be charged.
There is no proof that a mother and daughter got married in South Africa. The story is from 2017, seems to have come from a sketchy website, and uses a picture from six years ago. Different versions of the story give different details, and such a marriage would be against the law in South Africa.
Kindly Subscribe On YouTube Below:
WATCH VIDEO: How To Make Money On Your Mobile Phone/Easy Mobile Money Cashout
