According to the New York Times, Joe Biden told the story at three campaign appearances during February 2020. He did not mention it in his 2007 memoir or speak publicly of it before.

NY Times report that the latest occurence was at a campaign event in South Carolina, when he recounted the events that allegedly took place three decades ago:

“This day, 30 years ago, Nelson Mandela walked out of prison and entered into discussions about apartheid. I had the great honour of meeting him. I had the great honour of being arrested with our UN ambassador on the streets of Soweto trying to get to see him on Robben Island.”

Does Joe Biden’s claim check out?

The NY Times ran a check on all available news accounts and could not find any records to corroborate Biden’s claim. South African arrest records are not available in the US, so our investigation continues.

Katie Glueck and Thomas Kaplan from the NY Times reached out to former congressman and mayor of Atlanta, Andrew Young, who was an ambassador to the UN in the late seventies.

Young claims to have travelled with Biden on various campaign trips, including to South Africa between 1977 and 1979. However, Young said he was never arrested in SA, and expressed scepticism:

“No, I was never arrested and I don’t think he was, either”. Andrew Young, former congressman and mayor of Atlanta

Netizens react to Joe Biden’s claim

Furthermore, several netizens highlighted the inaccuracies of Biden’s claims. Shaun King from The Breakdown pointed out that Biden got “key facts wrong”.

“When [Joe Biden] does things like lying about being arrested in apartheid South Africa, he tells on himself by getting key facts wrong. In Nevada, he said he was arrested in Soweto (he wasn’t) for trying to meet Nelson Mandela on Robben Island. Robben Island is 900 miles [1 450 km] away.”

Another user, known only as QuietNoLonger, said Biden comes up with “more creative stories the further he falls behind in the race,” and added: “Pass the popcorn.”

Sentletse said that Biden “may have or may have not been arrested in South Africa, but he sure did fight against apartheid and stood with the oppressed black majority”, to which Johan Lorenzen replied:

“What is so sad is that, as [Sentletse] points out, Biden did some good fighting apartheid. He didn’t have to lie!”

Also read – ‘He is not as intelligent as Mugabe’ – said Margaret Thatcher after meeting Nelson Mandela