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On 14 May 2017, multiple tabloids published claims that a pastor in Zimbabwe was eaten alive by three crocodiles while demonstrating how Jesus walked on water for his congregation: Despite the fact that there was no reason given in any article for why a pastor and presumably his congregation from Zimbabwe was in South Africa to begin with, not to mention why a pastor would choose to demonstrate walking on water in an area literally called the Crocodile River, and the fact that the story bears a striking resemblance to a story from 2016 (all but the names are nearly identical), the story took off all over the world with no substantiating evidence. The 2017 claim first appeared on Zimbabwe Today on 24 March, and was republished on 13 May 2017 by the Daily Post. The Post notes in its disclaimer that information shared on it is unvetted, and should therefore be read with skepticism: Zimbabwe Today also noted that its material consists of unvetted community submissions: Disclaimers notwithstanding, a Google search for Jonathan Mthethwa only returned republications of the tale by news outlets, without any proof that Mthethwa existed prior to the claim. Several articles appeared to have been withdrawn within hours of their appearance. The web site Skeptical Science also came up empty-handed while trying to verify basic aspects of the crocodile claim: Beyond tabloids, no news sources in Africa or anywhere else reported the story, which did not deter multiple outlets from republishing the claim in May 2017.
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