I wouldn’t normally single out just one of the millions of random bigots on social media who spew hate speech like rambling, over-caffeinated lunatics in the corner of a coffee shop. As Ye Olde Lore of Trolls tells us, you do not feed the sad losers who thrive on being noticed. But last week, one of them upped the ante by threatening to bring his literally dozens of followers to Somerset Road in Green Point, Cape Town, to paint the rainbow pedestrian-crossing black.
The bigot in question, one Mehmet Vefa Dag (or MV Dag, to use the name he favours on his LinkedIn page), claims on his Twitter bio to be the “President of the Truth & Solidarity Movement Party, a 2024 General Election South African Presidential Candidate”, and to have been born in 1976.
There are some questions about the details, particularly his DOB. One enterprising Twitter detective going by the perhaps ironic username @NotVanVeen looked up Dag’s company records and ID number, and asked: “You stand for the truth but can’t even be truthful about your birth year ... On which one did you lie?”
This is what Dag wrote on Twitter: “Gordon hills, Remove Lgbt colors from Cape Roads, other ways we are going to paint those rds with black colors, citizens above politicians ... You can be gay but we are not gay, we are straight people of Cape Town ... Don’t push into our communities your disgraceful agenda ...”
On the Facebook page of the alleged Truth & Solidarity Movement Party (hereafter referred to as TruSod, for reasons both of brevity and pointedness), Dag writes: “We’re taking our Rd back this Sunday from Devil Alliance, get your brushes ready with your black paint, at 1 o’clock on Greenpoint Somerset Rd ... We will paint the road black ... We will save our children’s future from these freak colors. Cape Town come and join us.”
Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis responded, saying: “Genuinely saddened that this hate message gets such traction. A pedestrian crossing isn’t forcing you to do anything, Mehmet. You’re welcome to protest peacefully, but not to spread hate, and not to damage public infrastructure.”
You really couldn’t get a starker example of the difference between an opportunistic, unethical chancer (we have so many of them) who thinks our constitution is just an annoying stumbling block to his get-rich-quick scheme, and a politician who understands that the constitution is there to protect everyone’s human rights.
Most of us wouldn’t normally give air to this troll and would share Hill-Lewis’s sadness “that this hate message gets such traction”. But Dag’s clumsy populism teaches us lessons about the damage that other politicians, local and international, do to civic discourse. It’s an indication of the knock-on effect that the more sophisticated populist parties have when they spread hatred and dissent. (“Sophisticated” is used with a ragtag host of qualifiers.)
The problem with the populists among us is that they don’t realise that if we erode our constitutionally mandated human rights, we all suffer, not just the groups they’ve chosen to hate for votes
I don’t even know if Dag’s TruSod party is real, and I can’t find it on the electoral commission roll. A cursory internet search only shows historical stories about Dag on websites such as the Turkish Daily Sabah.
A 2019 story tells us that he “hails from the eastern Turkish province of Van and holds dual Turkish-South African citizenship”, and was nominated for the 2019 elections by his South Africa National Democratic Movement, “which replaced the Al-Shura Party that he founded in 2016”.
This is a guy who changes political parties the way people avoiding debt collectors change addresses. But let’s not spend too much time on his biography. What’s interesting is how he tries to mimic real populist parties.
Reading his social media over the past few days reveals a scattershot approach to hate speech, and a pick-and-mix demagoguery. Dag’s LinkedIn banner features the incredibly original, unbelievably unique slogan, “MV DAG will make South Africa great again.”
This is, of course, the ontological ground zero for facile populism, the Trumpian MAGA. But in the glorious hours after he saw that people were actually noticing him, when he realised that he wasn’t just spewing hatred into the void, Dag managed to cram all the greatest hits of hate speech into his Twitter stream.
We’ve covered the homophobia. He appears to have been sparked by Woolworths’ Pride month campaign, and on Facebook wrote: “Woolworth’s has publicly declared it’s a fag’s paradise, shame on you. The place where faggots are more important than straight.”
And, he tells us, when his party comes to power, “we will ban lgbt in South Africa”.
Antisemitism, naturally. “As South Africa, being ready for the War of the Zionist System, the world’s most tyrannical form of government, we defeated them during the Apartheid era, now we can beat them.
“Between 1880 to 1910 some 40,000 Jews immigrated from Eastern Europe Ukraine ... Now 100.000 jews control the entire Sa Economy.”
And: “Zionist Jews are using their banks, corporations, media and politicians to divide and conquer and destabilise the world and inculcate hatred towards heterosexual white men.”
The mention of Ukraine matters. Dag is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rabid toadies. “Cdes And Fighters of South Africa Who Is Coordinating The Welcome Of President Putin At The Airport? We Need To Paint The Streets Red, White And Blue. South Africa must welcome Putin ... Say no to USA and DA.”
He even copies the case-crazed typographical style of that other Putin lover, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla.
The death penalty makes an appearance. “The Truth and Solidarity movement will reinstate Death Penalty!!!”
And the death penalty’s inevitable correlation, reproductive rights: “We will ban abortion. That is final.”
There’s climate denialism, and the obligatory antivax stuff. “Bill Gates Arrest Warrant Issued in Philippines For ‘Premeditated Murder’ Linked To Vaccine Roll Out: He is the biggest criminal on the earth. He needs to be hanged.”
Surprisingly, Dag — who told the North Africa Post: “I was born in Turkey but people here see me as one of their own” — isn’t big on getting rid of illegal foreigners. “I have no doubt that there are many illegal foreigners involved in violent crime in South Africa, but this ‘holier than thou’ way of some South Africans blaming everything on foreigners is ridiculous.”
He is right to be nervous. This is one of the consequences of the crude hate speech that Dag spouts. It drives people into polarised positions. Many of the responses to his bile, from people defending our constitutional rights, included some reference to his dual nationality. One read: “Repatriate him to Turkey,” to which he plaintively responded: “Oh no.”
That’s the problem with populists. They don’t realise that if we erode our constitutionally mandated human rights, we all suffer, not just the groups they’ve chosen to hate for votes.
In and of himself, this future president of South Africa isn’t important, but the scorched earth economy of his hate speech is
The other lesson we learn from Dag is that trolls truly don’t care about issues, just about engagement. He proudly tweeted “Thank you South Africa” when his impressions went up by more than 86,000%, and his profile visits by more than 94,000%. He seems oblivious that almost all are people who disagree with him.
Actor Siv Ngesi’s tweet is probably representative: “F*** off you piece of shit little boy.”
Dag attempted to mimic what he believes democracy to be by putting up a few referendum-style votes, and pleading with people to back the option he favoured. Someone with an eye for cod-psychology might find his language suggestive. “We are coming, they are going down, Please push harder for yes ... Push harder.”
Phew. Sweaty stuff.
Dag’s polling issues included the original “Can we repaint Somerset Rd with black colour?”, to which only 19% voted Yes; “John Steenhusian is a CIA agent or not,” where only 23% voted “Yes, he is, betrayed SA”; and, “Can Russian President Vlademir putin welcome to South Africa”, where only 22% voted for “yes, welcome, we love him.”
When you read all these in one go, it’s ludicrous. Dag is flailing around, flinging his mental faeces against the wall and hoping some will stick. Will TruSod, if it even exists, make an impact in the 2024 elections? Of course not. But Dag’s loathsome hate speech will, because it’s part of the wash of evil that lays the ground for the more focused populist appeal of those political parties that couch their bigotry as policy.
Dag’s Twitter account is now suspended, you’ll be glad to know, but his digital traces still remain in the replies, dotted across the social media landscape like mounds of dung left behind by an incontinent ass. In and of himself, this future president of South Africa isn’t important, but the scorched earth economy of his hate speech is. The more that trolls like him set fire to the protocols of civil discourse, the less that citizens who care are left to work with.
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