As observed in 1992-1993, a simple survey of disinformation on Joe Modise over the past 2 decades years also gives the impression of a systematic and multi-faceted campaign. Again, it also seems to be a campaign with extensive resources and media networks. The following are examples:

RW Johnson – RW Johnson, a renowned racist and Western Cape Secessionist (see fin24 article by RW Johnson titled Independent Western Cape gains support as SA economy flounders, published on June 17 2016) was used as the springboard of the multiple conspiracy theories about Joe Modise. Hi background as a racist is well acknowledged and on 20 July 2010, he was labelled as such by 73 prominent writers and academics (see RW Johnson shames himself, disgraces London Review of Books, by Andy Rice published by the Daily Maverick on 22 July 22 2010). Here is an extract from the Daily Maverick article:

While the complainants were referring to Johnson’s work in general, their specific objection was to an article posted on the LRB website under the title “After the World Cup”. The article appeared on 6 July and had finally been taken down after 13 days, but the URL of the vanished post suggested, ominously, that its original title had been “The Coming of the Baboons”. The New Left Project, under whose aegis the letter had been sent, kept the offending passages on file.

“We are being besieged by baboons again,” Johnson wrote. “This happens quite often here on the Constantiaberg mountains (an extension of the Table Mountain range). Baboons are common in the Cape and they are a great deal larger than the vervet monkeys I was used to dealing with in KwaZulu-Natal. They jump onto roofs, overturn dustbins and generally make a nuisance of themselves; since their teeth are very dirty, their bite can be poisonous. They seem to have lots of baby baboons – it’s been a very mild winter and so spring is coming early – and they’re looking for food. The local dogs don’t like them but appear to have learned their lesson from the last baboon visit: then, a large rottweiler attacked the apes, who calmly tore it limb from limb.

“Meanwhile in the squatter camps, there is rising tension as the threat mounts of murderous violence against foreign migrants once the World Cup finishes on 11 July. These migrants – Zimbabweans, Malawians, Congolese, Angolans, Somalis and others – are often refugees and they too are here essentially searching for food. The Somalis are the most enterprising and have set up successful little shops in the townships and squatter camps, but several dozen Somali shopkeepers have already been murdered, clearly at the instigation of local black shopkeepers who don’t appreciate the competition. The ANC is embarrassed by it all and has roundly declared that there will be no such violence. The truth is that no one knows. The place worst hit by violence in the last xenophobic riots here was De Doorns and the army moved into that settlement last week, clearly anticipating trouble. The tension is ominous and makes for a rather schizoid atmosphere as the Cup itself mounts towards its climax.”

Now that all are familiar with this who RW Johnson really is, let’s look at some of the falsehoods he has peddled about Joe Modise. In his book, South Africa’s brave new world: the beloved country since the end of apartheid, he re-hashes apartheid era propaganda against Joe Modise but this is not entirely surprising. What is surprising is how some so called journalists, former comrades and “activists” such as Stanley Manong, Stephen Ellis, Stanley Manong, Terry Bell, Terry Crawford-Browne and others have used this book as a source of their information despite it having been discredited. First, in his claims on Modise, RW either does not provide sources or he presents dubious ones. For example, in a review of the book, academic Thula Simpson reveals that RW cites Vladimir Shubin’s book ANC: A View from Moscow as a source of one of the bizarre claims he makes about Modise but then Vladimir Shubin’s book actually offers no support for the claim Johnson makes. The Guardian’s David Beresford was also unkind when reviewing the book.

[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/may/16/south-africa-brave-new-world-apartheid-rw-johnson]

Beresford writes, “This hefty book should be on the shelves of every investigative journalist who nurses an interest in South Africa. Not for its disclosures – there being comparatively few of those, at least of a reliable nature – but as a record of pretty well every piece of unsubstantiated gossip to have circulated South Africa’s rumour mills.

Johnson is an ace at “the cuttings job”. There are a couple of principles of which a good cuttings writer should be aware. One is to beware of plagiarism.…….. A second principle is that dead men cannot sue and may therefore be vilified to one’s heart’s content”

Beresford further presents this hilarious assessment of one of RW’s claims…

“But the dead are not the only people Johnson attacks. He writes that according to RW Johnson, “not only was (Robert) Mugabe one of the few people given a fore-warning of the events of 9/11, but he had actually allowed al-Qaeda militants to fly into Zimbabwe in the week following 9/11 to get fitted out with false Zimbabwean passports”, thus suggesting that Mugabe was an accomplice before and after the fact in the destruction of the twin towers. Turning to the relevant footnote for the source of this mind-boggling claim, I read: “See RW Johnson”.

It boggles the mind how such a gravely flawed book can be used by individuals who claim to have any journalistic or academic integrity.

Clearly, the apartheid era machinery that aimed at slandering MK leaders is clearly still operational today and the likes of RW Johnson, Paul Trewhela, RW Johnson, Stephen Ellis, Stanley Manong, Terry Bell, Terry Crawford-Browne, Jacob Dlamini picked up the mantle. It also appears as if Kebby Maphatsoe (himself a deserter) have also jumped on the slander train for personal, political and economic gain.

Recently the head of the uMkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association, Kebby Maphatsoe conceded in court that his statements about former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils were false, offensive and unacceptable and agreed to a R500,000 settlement. In 2014, Maphatsoe called the former minister a counter-revolutionary and accused him of orchestrating a plot to implicate President Jacob Zuma of rape. During the case, former Intelligence Minister and MK cadre Ronnie Kasrils urged politicians to mature with South Africa’s democracy. Kasrils also said that politicians must recognise that South Africa is no longer in an era of armed struggle. “The country has seen too much of the name calling, including people being called agents of the CIA, foreign powers, counter-revolutionaries and the like.”

The question many citizens are asking, myself included is how and why we now have a situation where we are willing to slander struggle veterans, especially those who served in MK. Could it be that the ANC is fast losing its ability to provide thought leadership and ability to help the citizens of this country unpack complex issues. Added to this, many ANC cadres have joined Democratic Alliance (and other opposition) leaning journalists and writers in the use of apartheid era lies, conspiracy theories and slander to advance their own political and economic ambitions. Since the end of apartheid, the ANC has increasingly been slow to engage these falsehoods.

In order to try and identify the source of much these conspiracy theories, I attempted to find out if academics, researchers and journalists have written about this before. What I found was fascinating. During the struggle and in the period leading to the transition, the apartheid government used a number tactics to fight the ANC, MK, PAC, and others. They heavily infiltrated these movements and used their agents to peddle dangerous conspiracy theories and slander. Often the key targets were the top leadership, for example, in the case of MK, it was mainly Joe Modise (head of MK) and Chris Hani (first commissar then chief of staff and deputy head of MK). Both were subject to awful lies and slander. Conspiracy theories were also spread about other leaders including OR Tambo, Winnie Mandela e.tc.

Every ANC cadre and all citizens need to read carefully, the following article by Professor Padraig O’Malley where he covers the systematic character assassination of Chris Hani prior to and after he was shot dead by apartheid agents. What shocked me is how the assassination of Hani’s character parallels the assassination of Joe Modise’s character over the past 22 years. Does this mean that the same machinery that operated during the apartheid era is still alive and well today? To what extent are current and former ANC cadres aiding or active in pushing this sinister agenda? Anyway, here it goes;

https://www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv02424/04lv02730/05lv03005/06lv03006/07lv03051/08lv03053.htm ].

The following are some extracts from the long article, written in 1993….

*** Confirmation of the machinery – In 1991 Major Nico Basson began talking to the press. Basson was the former head of the SADF Department of Military Intelligence Comops (i.e. disinformation) operation in the run-up to the Namibian independence elections in 1989. His revelations lifted the veil on one aspect of the apartheid regime’s intelligence networks.

According to Basson: “Discrediting political leaders in the opposition camp is a popular strategy, especially in the army. In Namibia one of the main themes of the anti-Swapo strategy was the discrediting of the senior leadership of the party. In South Africa this strategy has also been used with great success.” (Vrye Weekblad, 12.4.91).

*** Chris Hani and Bank robberies – In November last year (i.e.1992) the Goldstone Commission raided the secret head-quarters of the SADF’s Military Intelligence (MI) Department of Covert Collection. “With the assistance of reinforcements provided by the South African Police, the building housing the Military Intelligence unit was sealed and five files were seized”, the Goldstone Commission announced a few days later.

What these five files (five presumably from among thousands whose contents remain unknown) showed was that the notorious ex-CCB agent, Ferdi Barnard, had been employed by MI until December 1991, despite official denials to the contrary. Barnard, a convicted double murderer, was employed by MI to discredit MK. The manner of discrediting, according to the Goldstone Commission, was to be by “linking it to criminal acts and crime syndicates. i.e. the ANC was accused of running networks of prostitutes, homosexuals and drug dealers.” (The Citizen, 17.11.92).

This kind of dirty tricks campaign has continued, with or without Ferdi Barnard [recent champions have included Paul Trewhela, RW Johnson, Stephen Ellis, Stanley Manong, Terry Bell, Terry Crawford-Browne, Jacob Dlamini and many others).

Professor Padraig O’Malley continues ………………………………. For instance, on Friday March 26th, fourteen days before Hani’s assassination, Solomon Mqanqeni and two others appeared in the Rand Supreme Court, charged with murder and bank robbery. The three were alleged to be members of an ANC inspired self defence unit, with MK connections. In a written statement, which Mqanqeni claimed had been extracted from him under duress, he alleged that the murder weapons were distributed to the group by Chris Hani and a “Tokyo” (an obvious reference to ANC PWV chairperson, Tokyo Sexwale). The statement further alleged that a portion of the loot from the bank robbery had been given to “Tokyo” in Shell House (the ANC headquarters).

On the very evening of this statement being presented in court, and admitted as evidence, Mqanqeni and his accomplices mysteriously escaped from Diepkloof Prison. According to prison authorities, they drove out of the prison in the prison truck which had just brought them back from court. They apparently (and incredibly) drove out through a wide open front gate.

Two days later, after the convenient court appearance and the alleged escape, Minister of Law and Order, Hernus Kriel went on the rampage against MK in parliament. He accused MK of being “nothing but criminals”. And referring to the negotiations demand for multi-party joint control over all armed formations, Kriel said: “We are not interested in joint control over criminals…we have declared war against war-mongers and criminals.” (The Citizen, 30.3.93)

The Mqanqeni affair, with its sequel in parliament three days later, had all the hall-marks of a stage-managed operation. The investigating officers into the bank robbery and murders committed in the course of the robbery never once questioned, let alone contacted, either Hani or Sexwale. Yet the police and prosecutor were implicating them in extremely serious crimes. “These public servants seem to be more intent on making political propaganda than on investigating crimes”, the SACP central committee said in a press statement at the time.

The circumstances of the fortuitous escape are also puzzling. Whatever the explanations for it, the escape prevented the SACP and the ANC cross-checking whether Mqanqeni and his co-accused were really ANC self defence unit members as alleged. At the time, Chris Hani, in a gesture typical of his generosity, expressed concern for the safety of Mqanqeni and his co-accused. “Having served a useful purpose, I am worried that they might now be eliminated. In the past, fabricated escapes have been used to eliminate individuals.”

On the eve of his assassination, then, a systematic and intensified campaign of disinformation had been directed against Hani. Needless to say, virtually all of these stories were launched in the press without the basic journalistic courtesy of first getting comment from Hani, the SACP or the ANC. The journalists responsible showed as much journalistic inquisitiveness as the SAP in the Mqanqeni affair. It was the construction of disinformation not the pursuit of information that they were after.

It is true that there were frequent denials from our side. We also called for Goldstone to investigate the Mqanqeni affair. But part of the disinformation war (or PSYOPS for psychological operations as it is known to its practitioners) is to create first and frequent impressions. The allegations need have no substance, and they may even be mutually contradictory (Hani was at once meant to be trying to take over MK and launch a separate renegade army, for instance). The point is to build an individual into a bogey, to surround him or her with continual controversy.

Professor Padraig O’Malley continues ……………………………….

*** Richard Ellis – Richard Ellis, the Johannesburg based correspondent for the London Sunday Times, has been one of the most active journalists in the disinformation campaign against Chris Hani. On January 31, 1993 he published a particularly offensive article on Hani, entitled “South Africa’s Saddam stakes his claim”.

But Ellis, like others, did not confine himself to disinformation before the assassination. One week after the assassination, he made the most sinister of interventions (“Winnie Mandela links ANC with assassination of Hani”, Lon-don Sunday Times, 18.4.93). The head-line tells the story, Ellis claims that Winnie Mandela has alleged that Hani was murdered by political rivals within the ANC.

When questioned, Ellis admitted he had not spoken to Mrs Mandela. When asked by the ANC’s Department of In-formation and Publicity why he had failed to seek comment from them, he claimed to have tried repeatedly, and that he had left messages with the telephone answering service, AutoPage. As it happens, AutoPage records all messages. Ellis had left no such message.

Worse still, in the days following the London publication of this terrible lie, Ellis approached Democratic Party MP, Lester Fuchs, to raise the allegation in parliament. A last minute intervention by DP leader Zach De Beer stopped Fuchs. The CP MP, Schalk Pienaar did, however, try to give the story some local mileage by raising it in parliament.

A simple survey of disinformation on Chris Hani over the last nine months (1992-1993) gives the impression of a systematic and multi-faceted campaign. It seems to be a campaign with extensive resources and media networks.

An example of the complexities of the issues involved and the role of infiltrators in spreading these conspiracy theories is illustrated by views held by such cadres. On 21 July 1992, Professor Padraig O’Malley interviewed former ANC Quatro Prisoners.

[https://www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/cis/omalley/OMalleyWeb/03lv00017/04lv00344/05lv00607/06lv00644.htm]

Here are extracts from an the interview with one Sipho Ngema, a suspected apartheid agent and former Quattro prisoner who was explaining the reasons for the 1984 Angola camp mutinies which Chris Hani is alleged to have ruthlessly crushed –

Padraig O’Malley: What was the basis of the mutiny in 1984?
Sipho Ngema: The reasons for those people to take up arms was because they were sick and tired of the corruption within the leadership of the ANC and another reason was that they realised that they were now becoming mercenaries because they were now being used by the MPLA government, which was procommunist,
to fight against UNITA which was backed by the US. ………………. They wanted a conference so that the leadership should be reshuffled, actually changed because most of the leaders of the ANC like Chris Hani were now smuggling and selling diamonds, people like Joe Modise were selling mandrax (recently, the same conspiracy theories have been spread by racist author RW Johnson and others such as Terry Crawford-Browne).