Claim: Zelenskyy bought himself a platinum mine in South Africa for 1.6 billion dollars.
Conclusion: Zelenskyy did not purchase 51% of the platinum mining company Northam Platinum Holdings Ltd in South Africa for 1.6 billion dollars. The video accompanying the claim uses an AI-generated voice and cannot be found on the “SABC News” page, from where it supposedly originated. Finally, according to the company’s shareholder data, as presented on its official website, most shareholders appear to be from South Africa. Other organizations have also debunked this claim.
What is true
A claim is circulating online that the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, purchased 51% of Northam Platinum Holdings Ltd in South Africa for 1.6 billion dollars. The claim is often accompanied by a supposed video report from SABC News, which is part of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), and allegedly supports this claim. This assertion and the video have also recently appeared on Greek-speaking social media and websites such as iskra.gr, anixneuseis.gr, differnews.gr, and pronews.gr, some of which have drawn our attention in the past as well.
Firstly, it should be noted that Northam Platinum Holdings Ltd is an independent platinum producer in South Africa, whose mining operations are primarily conducted at three wholly owned mines (Zondereinde, Booysendal, and Eland), while it also carries out further metallurgical activities. The company’s products and minerals are frequently utilized in various industrial applications.
Regarding the current claim, our first step was to gather more information about the origin of the video. Initially, we found that the earliest reference to the claim likely appeared on 27 March 2025 on a website from Zimbabwe, which later replaced the same post with another that is entirely unrelated.
By uploading a clip from the video to HIVE, we discovered that the narration voice in the video was created using AI-generated speech. At the same time, we visited the SABC News website and searched for “Zelenskyy”, but found no trace of the video in question.
According to the information we found during our investigation, it appears that the Ukrainian President is planning a meeting on April 10 with the President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, aiming to secure support as the war with Russia continues. Other sources have also confirmed this news.
As for the ownership and shares of Northam Platinum Holdings Ltd, a search of the company’s website under the section on shareholder analysis revealed that the majority of the company’s shareholders, according to the most recent data, are based in South Africa. This was also confirmed by Marketscreener.com, a financial news platform. The present claim has been debunked by several other organizations as well, including Politifact and Leadstories.
Conclusion
Zelenskyy did not purchase 51% of the platinum mining company Northam Platinum Holdings Ltd in South Africa for 1.6 billion dollars. The video accompanying the claim uses an AI-generated voice and cannot be found on the “SABC News” page, from where it supposedly originated. Finally, according to the company’s shareholder data, as presented on its official website, most shareholders appear to be from South Africa. Other organizations have also debunked this claim.