Hassen Lorgat
There is a problem in South Africa. Too few think tanks are seeking to steer the direction of the country in ways not beneficial to the majority of the people. Whilst they have the right to exist, this think factory of the right warrants greater debate then we have been giving them. It may also serve as a wake-up call for all particularly left leaning intellectuals to get up from their chairs and keyboards and begin to engage, think and organise to ensure that the values of the anti apartheid revolution are realised.
The enlightened rightwingers in their think-tanks are producing knowledge and information for subjugation not liberation. Their impact is not new but the recent history takes us back to 2019 when the then DA leader Mmusi Maimane after losing the election stood down but only after criticising the Institute of Race Relations (IRR). The SAIRR he said was “trying to influence internal politics” of the DA. He accused them of being interventionists and being lobbyists whose agenda is to influence not only policy but also internal party politics such as election contests. Some of these actors will reappear in the story below, but let me point out the main reason for my writing this piece.
The other day I stumbled on a survey or study – if that is the scholastic term – entitled Perceptions of The War in Gaza by Adults in The Western Cape. It is authored by the very same Frans Cronje who was formerly from the SAIRR. Their website informs us that Dr Frans “there is no racism” Cronje is the chair of the board of directors of the Social Research Foundation which was established in 2021 and. as they say, to “promote democracy and sound public policy”. He is to coin a phrase an academic hitman: if you want intellectual cover for your views, he will provide it. He is not alone, as I will show below.
The Research as it is called
The sample appears to be tiny and the question too leaning to the right of the political spectrum. Whilst the theme or topic is relevant the questions appear to use a language that is not neutral and clearly ideologically driven.
The study purports to investigate the perceptions of Western Cape adults towards the current war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. It is based on a survey of 815 geographically and demographically representative registered voters in the Western Cape commissioned by the Foundation in March 2024. That survey had a provincial margin of error of 5%.
The way the questions are posed sets up in many ways the answer. So, read this with a pinch of salt.
They asked the following questions and analysed them by “race”. I will not delve into their ideologies but simply look at how the questions are posed and are problematic.
If this was a court with me as the advocate for the people, I would shout – OBJECTION! The implications of these questions are clearly political as I will show hereunder.
The first was:
Are you aware of the war that broke out between Israel and Hamas on 7 October 2023 when Hamas invaded southern Israel from the Gaza strip?
COMMENT: So this is a war? Gaza is occupied by the state of Israel, and they have no air force, navy nor access to borders be it land, sea or the skies. Secondly, the Dr says this conflict began on 23 October when Hamas invaded the Gaza strip? The repeated use of the word invaded, which is ahistorically used to refer only to events on 7 October but not the invasion of Gaza (and the rest of Palestine) historical and the renewed actions in late October.
Ben Gurion, first Zionist prime minister of the state of Israel, recognised that people were dispossessed and thereafter occupied. He wrote in his own diary thus: “We must do everything to ensure they (the Palestinian refugees) never do return” (David Ben-Gurion, in his diary, July 18, 1948, quoted in Michael Bar Zohar’s Ben-Gurion: the Armed Prophet, Prentice-Hall, 1967, p. 157.)
Furthermore he wrote elsewhere:
“If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?”
David Ben-Gurion (the first Israeli Prime Minister): Quoted by Nahum Goldmann in Le Paraddoxe Juif (The Jewish Paradox, 1978), pp121.
How closely have you followed news about the war that broke out between Israel and Hamas on 7 October 2023?
COMMENT: Again the idea of a war presumably between two equal armies is embedded in the question as is the so-called fact that it is between Hamas and Israel. It all began on 7 October.
The biggest news undoubtedly was the International Court of Justice ruling, where the court stated that it was “plausible” that Israel committed acts of genocide in its ongoing bombardment of Gaza. This judgement from the highest court at the United Nations came in response to a case brought against Israel by South Africa, which has charged Israel with violating the Genocide Convention.
Maybe to ask this question would be too friendly to the oppressed people of the world?
Whose actions do you support more in the current Gaza conflict? Israel or Hamas?
COMMENT: The main agenda was to locate the dispossession of Palestinians of their land and the eradication of Palestine by focusing on Israel – Hamas. Just like the Israel media strategy and the legal strategy at the ICJ. I could think of a million other questions including: do you support a ceasefire in Gaza?
With these questions posed, the Research Foundation concluded:
Voters are aware of the war between Israel and Hamas. But it is in their throw away line that speaks volumes for groups like the DA. It reads “a majority of voters do not follow news on the conflict closely”. SO, ignore it. It is from this socalled informed position that John Steenhuisen said in a SABC interview with Leanne Manas in reference to Gaza: “one side’s genocide could be another side’s freedom fighting”.
Secondly, they present the proof that more people support Israel amongst the Cape’s registered voters: 31.3% supported Israel’s actions in the war compared to 13.7% who supported Hamas’ actions.
Can the Left learn from the Right?
I think so. We have to reorganise ourselves and begin to rethink ideas as an important terrain of struggle. Rightwingers have a material impact and, in this case, they seek to influence the elections. If they win, the poor and working people will live less, albeit under conditions of transparency and efficiency. Justice for all will be a scarce resource.
So we have no option but to organise and rebuild our organisations and movements. Whatsapp groups are not a substitute for organisation.
Interestingly, a surprise action and ruling put the cat amongst the pigeons. This group, alongside their ideological partners, have been in the news – not all pleasant. Two days before this so-called survey came out, one research body was the elephant in the room in a matter before the press council: the matter of Action SA vs Rapport and Others. The ruling by the deputy ombud was that the report had to be corrected by the media houses…
The complainant says there are strong indications that the poll was conducted by the Democratic Alliance, and that this means the figures should be read with caution as parties use polling figures to mislead the electorate about their levels of support. The failure to name the DA as the organisation behind the polling amounts to the omission of a material fact, he says: I find that Rapport breached clause 1.2 of the Press Code by omitting material information on the provenance of the poll.
Basically – who is behind the poll? This is important as Action SA argued that the poll was “conducted by the Democratic Alliance, and that this means the figures should be read with caution as parties use polling figures to mislead the electorate about their levels of support. The failure to name the DA as the organisation behind the polling amounts to the omission of a material fact.”
I have strong suspicions it is the study by the Brenthurst Foundation, but I am not sure – suffice to say it is at the centre of the neoliberal struggle for another South Africa. The Brenthurst Foundation is led by their two key thinkers Greg Mills (Director) and Ray Hartley (Research Director), whilst Victory Research is led by Johan Van Der Berg (Founder and Managing Partner) and Gareth Van Onselen (Chief Executive Officer).
This ideological bloc of research companies, I believe, have a disproportionate say in the public discourse and, given our past, we cannot ignore the fact that they are lily white. Politically, they would cast their politics as free market capitalists friendly, USA aligned.
Their reach is far and wide, in South African media although the Daily Maverick, The Citizen and the Media 24 Group of companies appear to be their most avid ¨supporters¨of their work. But their reach in radio, TV and social media all crying out for ¨indigenous content¨all use their work.
They also believe that coalition governments of small parties can work to reverse the slide into authoritarianism. The Gdansk Declaration Solidarity for Democracy, signed in June 2023, outlines their policy agenda and included many participants who were also signatories from Africa. These include representatives from UNITA (Angola), Renamo (Mozambique), United Democratic Front (Malawi), National Unity Platform (Uganda), Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Foundation (Liberia), All for Rwanda (Rwanda), and others. Prominent South Africans include the likes of Branko Brkic (Editor-in-Chief, Daily Maverick, South Africa) as well as Geordin Hill-Lewis (Mayor of Cape Town, South Africa) and the director of the Brenthurst Foundation Greg Mills.
We recognise that democracy in Africa is already under growing threat, including dramatic reversals this century in the Sahel and in North Africa. While these struggles may be characterised as popular, authoritarianism is today less about promoting ideology than defending elite privilege and power. Some African countries have never enjoyed a peaceful transfer of power at the polls. The weakness of institutions makes African countries particularly vulnerable to external undermining of democracy and to the risks of state capture.
Way forward
Information / knowledge without an implementation strategy will not result in effective change. They are routing their ideas in various platforms – radio, tv, newspapers and a few political parties. Only a handful of the progressives do this, but clearly I fear the other side is leading.
We need to organise and contest ideas of the neoliberal triumvirate. I am committed to an anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-neoliberal capitalist pillage, and for participatory democracy and a democratised people centred economy. If these guys say they stand for a democracy it must be of a special type – where the elites continue to rule.
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