Lt-Col Lungelo Dlamini said information on Twitter at the weekend about a baby in a hijacked car had turned out to be false.

The registration number of the vehicle "involved" was given.

"Police acted on such information immediately and could not establish any hijacking and kidnapping of a baby," he said.

Dlamini said police interviewed the man by the name of Erick, who was named on the social network as the person to contact should anyone see "the vehicle and the child".

"He had no knowledge of such hijacking; he even told police that he switched off his phone after receiving numerous calls talking about hijacking," he said.

The allegations and the source of the information were under investigation, as no complaint had been laid with the police, Dlamini said.

He said the police had investigated a number of cases reported on social networks which had turned out to be false.

"Sending out false information about crime is a criminal act. Charges of perjury may be brought against any person distributing false information on crime," Dlamini said