Fact Check: Is this Energy Mutodi in the assault video? - ZimFact
Ngoni Mhuruyengwe
July 19, 2023
Claim: A video has gone viral on social media (Twitter and Facebook) of a man being identified as Energy Mutodi, the Bikita West Parliamentary candidate for Zimbabwe’s governing ZANU PF party in the August 23 general election, viciously assaulting a man with a whip and a hammer while the victim’s hands and legs are tied up. Many commentaries said Mutodi was assaulting a political opponent.
Verdict: False – this is not Mutodi
A ZimFact search online came across a video of the same man assaulting another man. These two videos, which feature the same man clad in the same outfit occurred at an obscure location in South Africa, and both the victim and the assailant speak in Zulu in the second video.
Video 1 –This video shows the first victim who is gagged and tied, this is the version in which the assailant is mistaken for Energy Mutodi as there are no visible context clues as only the whimpers of the victim are heard.
Video 2 – This is a longer video in which the same man assaults another man under a bridge whilst he is tied up, but is not gagged. The two exchange words in Zulu as the assault goes on.
The social media claim is false, as it is clear from the context clues that the assailant in the video is not Energy Mutodi.
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