By Pascal Ibe

Introduction

Elon Musk has been in the news recently for a variety of reasons, spanning his different companies and political activities.

A few months ago, the Trump-Elon feud’s spark was a massive spending and tax bill championed by the administration, which the president had dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Musk, who had recently served as a special government employee leading a “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) to cut federal waste, was a vocal opponent of the bill. He called it a “disgusting abomination” and “pork-filled,” arguing it would massively increase the national debt and undermine the work he had been doing to trim government spending.

Claim

Recently, social media users shared a video of Elon Musk ignoring a handshake from the president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa.

A Facebook user, Sambo Chukwudi, posted the video and asked, “Why is Elon Musk looking down on the South African president?

The post generated over hundreds of comments and reactions.

The video was also shared on TikTok.

Verification

FACTWATCH Nigeria subjected keyframes from the video to Google Image Reverse Search and the results led us to a similar video published in May by the YouTube channel of the presidency in South Africa.

In the video, we discovered that Elon shook Ramaphosa’s hand properly. We also observed that the video being circulated was edited deliberately.

Watch the original video here.

In May, Donald Trump, the president of the United States, and Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of South Africa, held a bilateral meeting.

Among the topics addressed were the controversial issues of land reform and farm attacks in South Africa, the latter of which Trump claimed disproportionately affected white farmers

President Trump raised concerns previously expressed by U.S. officials and advocacy groups regarding the expropriation of farmland without compensation. President Ramaphosa responded by reaffirming his government’s commitment to a constitutional and lawful process of land reform aimed at addressing historical inequalities, while ensuring food security and protecting property rights.

Verdict

The video showing Elon Musk’s refusal to shake Ramaphosa’s hands was edited. Therefore it’s MISLEADING.