By Masibongwe Sihlahla
It is common knowledge that by nature our opinions are individual to each of us, whereas factual truth is always by its very nature diverse because it requires communication and interacting with others.
Making a judgement also requires other peoples' input because of how it is a process of thinking that, like factual truth, corresponds to our condition of diversity in our rainbow nation. The danger of fake news is that it treats personal opinion as a form of factual truth in a way that removes one from the real world environment and reinforces a selfish narrow-minded mind-set. In the resulting process, making a judgement becomes impossible for the individual given that forming judgements is an important part of our democratic lives as voters in this country.
As a result, the elephant in the room is not that politicians or their proxies deliberately lie to the public, or that disinformation is protected by our laws on freedom of expression but it is with how the lie becomes treated as truth in such a way that it cannot be doubted or challenged by the ordinary person.
Politicians, opinion makers, content creators, social media influencers, etc. when faced with above scenario about what counts as valid and reliable information demands, expects that the public trust them implicitly, which is not the easiest thing to do in the world considering the fact how often politicians stretch the truth to suit their nefarious ends.
Our politicians do not need much help in undermining the nation’s trust in our institutions of democracy – they do a pretty good job of that already. Dr Iqbal Survé having grown up under apartheid remembered whenever PW Botha opened his mouth he was lying about the UDF and its anti-apartheid Struggle but did it dent the trust Afrikaners had in Afrikaner democratic institutions? No, it made them even more staunch believers in apartheid.
Sadly it is a known fact among scholars and political commentators that as a whole citizens are on one hand, shockingly ill-informed about most major issues and, on the other hand, they do not care about seeking the truth anyway to support what they believe.
The rise of social media and its addition of fake news did dent this perception of our voters in the least , and if fake news is a threat, it seems to be one only insofar as we can count on the electorate to make reasoned judgements based on accurate information.
Today any Google search will inform you how dangerous disinformation is to our democracy when it persuades people to vote in a certain predictable way. With the vast amounts of data collected by Google, Facebook, X and YouTube etcetera it is easy to predict human nature and given that is then easy to manipulate that predictable behaviour. It is in this light that the campaign by @Goolammv takes on a ominous light, especially when it seeks to further the aims and objectives of unseen hands behind the scenes.
When Independent Media sounded the alarm way before the 2024 elections they were shrugged off by the likes of mainstream media as conspiracy theorists and alarmists. Today mainstream media with their apartheid persecutors and StratCom operatives with quite a number of them all staying in Hermanus — ironically my hometown — still pretend to wear the veil of upholding Christian values and moral standards like they claimed under apartheid.
What arrogance and audacity these racists beneficiaries of apartheid have. Everyone talks about the Stellenbosch Mafia but few bother to look at the Hermanus Billionaire Cabal from where I suspect many of @Goolammv's strategic directives hail. What Independent Media has done in alerting the public to the chicanery of @Goolammv goes a long way in conscientising our public to be alert and be highly political conscious as in the days of the UDF when South Africa's black population was the most politically conscientious people in the world.
With the rise of social media, people are becoming more complacent, and are unable to distinguish fact from fiction.
In looking ahead to the future, Vawda’s behaviour raises concerns about the impact on informed democratic discourse and the need for responsible online engagement and I support Independent Media and Lindiwe Sisulu for laying criminal charges against @Goolammv even though it appears he has left the country.
He may run, but he can't hide. His long night of damage must come to and end. He is a political assassin of a different kind.
* Masibongwe Sihlahla is an independent writer and political commentator.
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.