JUSTICE MALALA: Where were SA’s intelligence agencies?

If you thought Africans could never go against each other in a continent-wide war, look back at what happened to us this past week — and think again. We very nearly manipulated ourselves into war. And who is to blame? It is our penchant to believe everything we see and read on social media.

Last week we believed in the authenticity of every video of looting, beheading and necklacing that was fed to us on Facebook, Google, Twitter, WhatsApp and other social media platforms. We believed that South Africans were killing Nigerians, that Nigerians were trafficking South African girls.

We did not stop to think. In their own countries, Nigerians retaliated, Mozambicans attacked, Zambians looted. We could have gone to war.

As all this was happening, where were SA’s intelligence agencies? Can they tell us what happened to SA and countries to the north of us as we began to hate each other and burn each others’ properties? We know that in the run-up to the 2016 presidential elections in the US the Russians used Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other platforms to spread disinformation and sow discord. They exploited differences. The Mueller report is very clear about this, as are all US intelligence agencies.

The country burnt and our neighbours pushed back. The losers? All of us

Do SA intelligence agencies, when they are not being used to fight internal ANC battles, know who was responsible for the hate that spread from SA to Lagos and then Nairobi and Maputo?

Nigerians were fed a steady diet of fake images purporting to be attacks on Nigerians living and working in SA. The images went viral. Burna Boy, possibly Nigeria’s hottest musical export, picked up on these images. He called for a boycott of SA and vowed to never set foot "for any reason" in the country until the SA "government wakes the f*** up".

Nigerian singer Tiwa Savage tweeted that she would not be attending a music festival she is booked for in SA later this month. "I refuse to watch the barbaric butchering of my people in SA. This is SICK," she tweeted.

Nigeria’s minister of foreign affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, said: "What is happening in SA is totally unacceptable. We will not accept it. Enough is enough, we’re going to have to address it once and for all."

Here’s the truth: not a single Nigerian has been murdered in SA in the latest round of deplorable, outrageous and unacceptable xenophobic attacks. Reports now indicate that the car dealership burnt down in the violence, allegedly owned by a Nigerian immigrant, was actually owned by a South African. This is a truth not to be found on social media.

So the retaliatory attacks started. Shoprite and Pick n Pay outlets were vandalised in Zambia. Zambian radio stations banned SA music. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, residents smashed the windows of the SA consulate and looted SA-owned stores. SA truck drivers were intimidated or attacked in Mozambique and Zambia.

Why? Lies spread faster than truth. Poverty, unemployment and inequality are all societal wounds waiting to be exploited. SA politicians in and outside the ANC, unable to give answers to the problems we face, have been beating the xenophobia drum. All this needed was a bit of fuel — in the form of fake news and fake videos on social media — to ignite. After the flare-up of attacks in Pretoria two weeks ago, the frenzy of looting started and was encouraged and inflamed by these fake social media posts. The country burnt and our neighbours pushed back. The losers? All of us.

Last Wednesday Facebook, Google, Twitter and Microsoft met government officials in Silicon Valley to discuss and co-ordinate how best to help secure the 2020 US election from the kind of foreign interference that roiled the 2016 election. They take the threat of fake news and manipulation of society seriously. They know it’s dangerous and can lead to war.

Are our intelligence agencies listening? Do they even know how to begin to respond to the dark side of the web? Or are they waiting for us to kill each other first?