{"id":640608,"date":"2026-08-16T19:35:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T19:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/640608\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T19:35:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T19:35:15","slug":"giraffes-head-sinkhole-stunt-backfires-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/640608\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Giraffe\u2019s head\u2019 sinkhole stunt backfires in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

When politicians from South Africa’s main opposition party put a stuffed giraffe’s head into a sinkhole, their plan was to draw attention to the dire state of the country’s roads.<\/p>\n

But the stunt, by the Democratic Alliance (DA)<\/a>, backfired when animal rescuers were called out to what they thought was an emergency, leading to a furious public reaction.<\/p>\n

Politicians from the DA, the main opposition party to the African National Congress (ANC), set up and filmed a giraffe stuck up to its neck in a roadside chasm in Mogale City, north-west of Johannesburg.<\/p>\n

The video was fronted by Evert Du Plessis, the shadow member of the executive committee for roads and logistics, and was captioned: “A sinkhole so deep a giraffe can stand in it.”<\/p>\n

It continued: “Residents and small businesses in the area continue to live with the danger and disruption. To drive the point home, a giraffe prop was placed in the hole to show just how deep and serious the problem is.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The video was fronted by Evert Du Plessis, the DA’s roads and logistics lead<\/p>\n

But not everyone knew it was a prop.<\/p>\n

Staff at Owl Rescue Centre received a number of worried calls that an animal appeared to be in trouble and dropped their work elsewhere to attend the scene.<\/p>\n

They said they had tried to verify whether the incident was a hoax, but set out to mount a rescue. They only realised it was not real when they received further photos.<\/p>\n

Staff suggested the party owed the rescue centre a donation for fuel costs.<\/p>\n

The centre said on social media: “Naturally, we rushed straight out to help. Right up until we received this photo and realised it might be a prank.<\/p>\n

“Turns out, it was. The local branch of the DA thought sticking a stuffed giraffe head into a hole was a clever way to draw attention.”<\/p>\n

In a later post, the centre added: “When a wild animal’s life might be on the line, we don’t wait around, we respond. What if it had been real?”<\/p>\n

It continued: “Using an actual dead animal to score political points isn’t just unethical but deeply disrespectful to our wildlife and biodiversity.<\/p>\n

“We get it. We understand why you need to bring attention to the state of our roads and sinkholes.<\/p>\n

“And we even get the joke. But using an animal to make a political point just crosses the line for us.”<\/p>\n

The centre claimed it had abandoned another rescue to attend the scene, which they returned to after discovering the hoax.<\/p>\n

Sinkholes a ‘huge problem’<\/p>\n

Decrepit infrastructure<\/a> and overstretched public services are expected to be key political battlegrounds in November’s municipal elections, with potholes and sinkholes a highly visible example.<\/p>\n

Mr Du Plessis said in the video: “Here is the sinkhole that we started visiting in February last year. As you can see, nothing has been done. We had some fun with the giraffe here. A lot of people that drove past thought he fell into the hole, but it’s just a prop that we use to emphasise the veracity of this problem.”<\/p>\n

He said the party was asking road and transport authorities to “please urgently come to our help and to make sure that this problem is solved as soon as possible”.<\/p>\n

“It really creates a huge problem for residents as well as small businesses in this area.”<\/p>\n

\"Helen<\/p>\n

Helen Zille, a DA politician, was filmed earlier this year swimming in a giant pothole<\/p>\n

In response to the video, social media users condemned the action. “This was not funny\u2026there are better ways to highlight a sinkhole,” wrote one user. “Many people were distressed, and Owl Rescue Centre could have spent their time saving other animals that needed their help.”<\/p>\n

Helen Zille, the DA candidate to lead Johannesburg, was filmed earlier this year swimming in a giant pothole to illustrate the state of the roads.<\/p>\n

The DA came second in South Africa’s 2024 election, when the ANC lost its 30-year outright majority.<\/p>\n

The parties have since been in a sometimes fractious national unity coalition, but the DA will try to win a slew of town halls in November to maintain the ANC’s decline in popularity.<\/p>\n

Try full access to The Telegraph free today. Unlock their award-winning website and essential news app, plus useful tools and expert guides for your money, health and holidays.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When politicians from South Africa’s main opposition party put a stuffed giraffe’s head into a sinkhole, their plan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[273],"tags":[270915,270914,103446,222424,18,270913,270917,19,17,12502,270918,133,5258,270916,461],"class_list":["post-640608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-african-national-congress","tag-animal-rescuers","tag-da","tag-democratic-alliance","tag-eire","tag-evert-du-plessis","tag-giraffe-head","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-johannesburg","tag-main-opposition-party","tag-science","tag-south-africa","tag-stuffed-giraffe","tag-wildlife"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117106870748418097","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}