KFC has hired an investigator to track down a "fake food inspector" who demanded free food in the chain's restaurants.
Media reports of the fake KFC food inspector first emerged in 2019, but these incidents were initially brushed aside as urban legend.
The chain's South African franchise has now launched a private investigation to unmask an alleged phoney food inspector attempting to eat for free across the country.
"Recurring social media coverage of the fake food inspector has led to further stories of other quality assurance impersonators," KFC said in a statement.
"KFC has appointed Private Investigator Beckett Mathunzi, to establish the authenticity of the alleged reports and, if real, track down the identity of the fake KFC food inspector."
The South African franchise is also appealing to the public for help, and is encouraging anyone with relevant information about the investigation to come forward.
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This is not the first time the fast food restaurant chain has had to deal with impersonators soliciting free food – or the myths behind these stories.
Indeed, in May 2019, the story emerged of a 27-year-old who was said to had managed to get KFC for free by pretending to be from head office.
The student, who had not been identified at the time, was said to have worn a suit and presented fake ID to fool staff at several of the popular chain's restaurants in South Africa.
The young man, allegedly from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, was reported to have pulled up to the KFC branches in a limousine driven by a friend and said he was there to make quality assurance checks on the food.
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It later emerged that the story was false.
In June 2021, again, social media went into a frenzy when the story of an arrest of two South African men posing as food inspectors surfaced.
A photo of the alleged conmen supposedly showed them standing in front of a police van "after two years of illegal activity".
All these stories appear to be wildly exaggerated and no arrests have officially been made.
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Following the announcement it had hired a PI to investigate the fake food inspectors, KFC admitted the investigation was just a PR stunt – further feeding into the urban legend.
South Africa's struggling economy was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic with an estimated 2 million jobs lost, soaring cost of living and a runaway inflation.
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