Bolt has suspended inter-country requests between South Africa and Nigeria as users book hoax rides to prank drivers.

• For the past two days, Uber and Bolt users in South Africa and Nigeria have been booking hoax rides in the other country to prank gig workers.
• The high volume of fake bookings has caused surge pricing in cities like Lagos, Cape Town, and Johannesburg.
• Gig workers believe they are paying the price for an incident that has nothing to do with them.

Over the past two days, ride hailing apps Uber and Bolt have become battlegrounds for a conflict between Nigerians and South Africans over a beauty pageant contestant.

A Nigerian takes to X to challenge South Africans over the hoax rides. X/@Chrisllionaire_

Earlier this month, model Chidimma Adetshina pulled out of the Miss South Africa contest following public outcry and xenophobic attacks over her ethnicity. Adetshina, who was born in South Africa, was targeted because her father is Nigerian and her mother has Mozambican roots. Soon after, organizers of a similar contest in Nigeria invited Adetshina to participate in their event, and she accepted.

The incident fueled the long-standing tension between the two countries, which perceive each other as economic competitors — and South Africans found an unlikely medium to vent their rage.

On August 21, Uber and Bolt users in South Africa started booking hoax rides in Nigeria to prank gig workers in the country. Once a booking was confirmed, the customer would send misleading location details to the driver before eventually canceling the ride. Several South Africans posted screenshots of their prank on social media, inciting Nigerians to retaliate.

By the next day, the number of such bookings in both countries was so high that users in Lagos, Cape Town, and Johannesburg took to social media to complain about the sharp increase in fares due to surge pricing. Real customers struggled to find rides, leading Bolt to restrict inter-country ride requests.

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