How Social Media was Weaponized to Divide South Africans – The Tale of Bell Pottinger & The ‘Zuptas’

credit: The New Yorker; Illustration by Ben Jones

In 2016, through various agents and representatives, scandalized former President Jacob Zuma had brokered a deal with British public relations and electioneering firm, Bell Pottinger.

For £100,000/month (2-2.5 million rands), the firm was recruited to develop a narrative-framework for counterpropaganda intended to dismiss the allegations of corruption against Zuma. Famously, these allegations were so severe it required the development of a new term – State Capture – to encapsulate the scale of the crime: the capture of the state into private hands, as Zuma sold off the country’s public institutions and resources, bit by bit, to the Guptas – a family of wealthy billionaires from India.  

The scale of the crime was only mirrored by the scale of the propaganda involved in obscuring the crime; an entire misinformation network complete with a newspaper, a 24-hour news network, an ‘attack’ website, a cadre of influencers and social media personalities, and lastly, the infamous army of Twitter and Facebook trolls that came to be known as the ‘Guptabots’. These were hundreds and hundreds of fake accounts that amplified misinformation in the campaign, portraying Zuma as a martyr and victim, rather than as a villain. 

Victoria Geoghegan; since moved to working at another "Reputation Management" firm. Credit: The Sowetan Live

The narrative for the campaign came directly from Bell Pottinger and was revealed in the notorious ‘Guptaleaks’ - a vast leak of emails and documents that evidence the scale of the corruption as well as the propaganda involved. Among these emails are communications with Victoria Geoghegan, former Bell Pottinger executive. In these emails she outlines a strategy and a narrative for the misinformation network to follow: “Economic Apartheid.” 

This narrative claimed that Apartheid continues through a shadow government of elite white individuals in South African society that truly pull the strings of power. These figures were using their influence to scapegoat Zuma for their crimes, and the media and judiciary who supported these allegations were complicit.  

Bell Pottinger’s ‘Economic Apartheid’ mythology drew on terms like “White Monopoly Capital” and “Stellenbosch Mafia” to support its narrative; words that had already existed in South African discourse, but which were now inflated and conflated with different meanings and ideas, scaled-up to the point of being able to wash Zuma clean of his corruption charges.  

These revelations led to the collapse of Bell Pottinger. The Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA), the regulatory body that oversaw such firms, struck Bell Pottinger from its list of members following the scandal and ensuing backlash. The DA themselves filed a complaint against the British firm, claiming it was deliberately stoking racial unrest on behalf of a private client - the Guptas. The horror of what Bell Pottinger had commissioned in the name of PR revenue was truly staggering - to commit to such a racially provocative narrative in a country struggling to heal from Apartheid, burdened and betrayed beneath the weight of a corrupt administration.

Myth-Making 

"The Stellenbosch Mafia", a book by Pieter du Toit

This is how myth-making works – as Roland Barthes put it, “myth appropriates history”, it doesn’t simply just develop out of nothing. These myths appropriated the history of Apartheid and the structural legacy it left behind – including the fact that most of South African’s wealthiest citizens are white. The term itself was used by Nelson Mandela; however, the historic legacy behind the team simply provides a convenient and credible narrative to be adapted into these mythologies. Using a term that is loaded with symbolic history gives it significance when deployed in the context of the ‘economic Apartheid’ narrative. 

Terms like Stellenbosch Mafia also gained weight after private sector corruption scandals like Steinhoff further contributed to these ideas. Many ordinary citizens lost pensions and savings as the result of a white-led company based out of Stellenbosch.  

All of these elements of history get appropriated into the myth-making process, to produce an ideology and mythology that legitimizes itself through these histories.  

The RET Network 

These narratives and mythologies were disseminated throughout the country through a sophisticated misinformation network.

Dubbed the RET Network by observers like the CABC (Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change), the network comprised a set of various nodes each with their own purposes (RET is an acronym for the Radical Economic Transformation cluster that was exiled from the ANC).  

• The New Age (TNA) was a pro-Zuma/pro-Gupta newspaper that was pushed into the hands of South Africans – including by taking money from South African Airways to place The New Age newspapers throughout South African airports. The News Paper, owned by the Guptas, put on 'business breakfast shows' alongside news channels like ANN7 (below). State-owned entities like Eskom and Transnet paid millions in sponsorship fees—sometimes over R1 million per event—to support these breakfast briefings. SABC paid over R4 million to TNA media for broadcasting the breakfast shows. Additionally, millions of rands were taken from PRASA and SAA for TNA subscriptions.

  
  

  

  
  

• ANN7 - later rebranded as Afro Worldview - a 24 hour pro-Zuma news channel that benefitted from promotions through The New Age and the business breakfast shows. 

  
  

  

• Websites like WMCLeaks – White Monopoly Capital Leaks – were created, to author content featuring misinformation and disinformation and spin-doctoring State Capture allegations with pro-Zuma/pro-Gupta narratives. WMCLeaks was termed an ‘attack site’, meaning that it was responsible for directing its propaganda in an attack-strategy against those critical of Zuma – from figures like Johan Rupert (billionaire Stellenbosch businessman accused as being a figurehead of white monopoly capital) to journalists like Ferial Haffejee who were responsible for shedding light on the extent of corruption within Zuma’s inner circle.  

  
  

• Influencers and other online public figures were recruited for their online followings which were necessary to amplify this content manufactured within the propaganda network.  

  
  

• Lastly – and most importantly – the Guptabots themselves, an army of fake accounts spread across Twitter and Facebook were created to amplify (and in some cases author) the misinformation and propaganda.  

The homepage of WMCLeaks (credit: DailyMaverick). Immediately apparent is the article attacking journalsit Peter Bruce, falsely claiming he was cheating on his spouse. Articles framing corruption by non-black races against black citizenry are also apparent

Twitter & Facebook 

The Guptabots conducted an ‘astroturfing’ campaign of misinformation; this term refers to the bombardment of every level of the public sphere with a particular set of propaganda that drives a particular narrative.  

These fake accounts were made to look like ordinary South Africans engaging in political discourse. The idea was to give these narratives “the illusion of organic support” from ordinary South Africans, while simultaneously amplifying the reach of this content millions of South Africans (CABC, 2021).  

In the analysis conducted by bodies like the CABC, certain accounts were identified as author accounts, which developed content, while the greater mass of accounts functioned as amplifiers, which took the authored content and amplified its reach to millions of South Africans (CABC, 2021). 

Furthermore, through paid advertising on Facebook and Twitter, the network’s attack site – WMCLeaks – was able to advertise their social accounts, their content, and their website across Facebook and Twitter (CABC, 2021). This allowed this content to reach a greater audience who were not following accounts linked to the network.  

These accounts were mostly developed and administered by a firm in India – CNET Infosystems, headed by an Indian national, Kapil Garg (Cronje, 2017). The first set of accounts seemed to have difficulty with naming conventions amongst South Africans diverse populations – mixing names with European, Indian, and African origin in a mix that may have not fooled all South Africans. However, the latter set of accounts soon refined these naming conventions and became far more credible versions of ordinary South Africans (CABC, 2021).  

These accounts popularly singled out figures like Johan Rupert and Cyril Ramaphosa, sharing content that implied these figures were involved in shady scandals and massive instances corruption – while portraying Zuma as a champion of the people and a victim of these corrupt figures.  

Attacks on Journalists 

Journalists who attempted to shed light on the Gupta-Zuma association and its propaganda were met with intense harassment campaigns conducted by the Guptabot network and fueled by public figures.  

Ferial Haffajee became the target of routine memes and articles that were circulated around the country; these featured a range of allegations and disturbing imagery: from portraying Haffajee as an actual dog, led about on a leash by her white masters; to claiming she was in a sexual relationship with Johan Rupert (CABC, 2021).  

Haffajee also explained that she received repeated threats of violence from these agitators, as well as having her personal information leaked online through ‘doxxing’. 

Peter Bruce, another journalist critical of the Zuma-Gupta association, was beaten up outside his house by members associated with Andile Mngxitama and the Black First Land First movement. Fake articles like “Cheater Peter” were released online, claiming that Bruce was involved in an extramarital affair (featured earlier). 

Polarization & Fragmentation 

This misinformation had a devastating effect on South Africa’s informational ecosystems. It divided up South Africans, as algorithms and ad-services determined which version of the propaganda to deliver to which citizens. This entrenched people along these divisions. Worrying, being that the propaganda was very much racially focused, it divided South Africans along racial lines – disastrous in a country still healing from the wounds of Apartheid.  

Polarization is a critical phenomenon given much attention by political scientists. Polarity indexes are used to gauge the state of societal divisions – they serve as a pressure gauge to judge the increasing tensions between opposing groups and ideologies. 

The more polarized a nation is, the more instability it must endure. This instability also allows for bad actors to take advantage, by leveraging the divided nature of the people against the people with misinformation and inflammatory propaganda.  

The campaign deepened mistrust in institutions, media, and electoral processes. Even years later. Analysts describe this as a shift toward post-truth politics, where emotional narratives and identity-based appeals override facts and accountability. 

Furthermore, factions like the MK Party—Zuma’s new political vehicle—have inherited and amplified this legacy of disinformation. Analysts following the RET network’s online propaganda noticed a decisive shift from rallying around EFF to rallying around MK overnight. 

The Violence of July 2021 

In 2021, we witnessed the outcome of this disinformation. The devastating violence that occurred during the Looting and Unrest of July 2021 was fueled along the same lines as the existing misinformation and disinformation; and was driven by many of the same accounts from the 2016 misinformation campaign – as highlighted by the groundbreaking work of the CABC.  

image credit: Amnesty International

Despite Twitter’s (X) commitment to purging these accounts, many persisted, along with their followings. These accounts leveraged the effects of the astroturfing misinformation on the polarized state of South Africa’s online ecosystem – to devastating effects.

These ranged from encouraging violence, to directly coordinating the mobilization of violent groups and looters. The legacy of the Economic Apartheid narrative was brought to bear, as the chaos was encouraged through looting and theft which these narratives provided the ideological legitimations for; justified by the structural legacy of Apartheid.    

Where to Next? 

Since 2016, South Africa has experienced a massive crisis of misinformation and disinformation. From the Bell Pottinger/White Monopoly Capital narrative to the Looting of KZN, to the white genocide narrative fueled by US-based public figures, to the pandemic of 2020 which saw many strands of misinformation and conspiracies crop up across South Africa – ranging from covid-denial and anti-vaccine misinformation to the QAnon conspiracy theory.  

Photos by: Brenton Geach/Gallo Images. Joe Raedle/Getty Images. Victor J Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images. EPA-EFE/CJ Gunther. Maddie McGarvey/Bloomberg via Getty Images; as featured in Daily Maverick's QAnon originated in South Africa – now that the global cult is back here we should all be afraid

Across Africa, foreign influence operations have continued to dominate the media environment. Russia, China, and the UAE have been documented as major players in disinformation campaigns across Africa. 

Israel’s Team Jorge – which functions as a type of Digital Mercenary – has used systems like its AIMS technology to develop cutting-edge bots and fake accounts that resemble real people – complete with online histories, corresponding accounts on various platforms, and even fake Airbnb reviews – all to resemble a real person. Team Jorge has been implicated in interfering in 20 elections across Africa. Africa is melting pot of neocolonial and neoimperial concerns; this has seen a marked presence of foreign disinformation networks and digital mercenary groups like Team Jorge. 

Excerpt from a presentation by Team Jorge to prospective clients who were undercover investigative journalists, credit Forbidden Stories

Lastly, under the new Trump 2.0 administration, Twitter (X) and Facebook (Meta) have rolled back much of the content regulations that protect its users from misinformation. As the Bell Pottinger saga has shown, these regulations were not even effective enough to begin with – however, now the situation is far worse. Particularly as South Africa has recently come onto the mainstage because of its intervention in the ongoing genocide in Palestine.  

Self-Regulation as our Safegaurd 

It falls to us to be more vigilant with the material we consume, while simultaneously being critical of the information we receive. Particularly information that agrees with our worldviews; information that confirms our biases and resonates with our expectations.  

This requires a counterintuitive approach to propaganda. As we become more emotionally and ideologically polarized, it is exactly the information that confirms these polarities and resonates with these emotions that we must criticize and be wary of. Typically, we’d be critical of and scrutinize information that runs contrary to our beliefs and expectations; now we must be critical and scrutinize the information that confirms these beliefs and expectations.  

References

Andrzejewski, C. (2023). “TEAM JORGE”: IN THE HEART OF A GLOBAL DISINFORMATION MACHINE. Forbidden Stories. 15 February. Translated from French by Hylton, A. Available: "Team Jorge”: In the heart of a global disinformation machine • Forbidden Stories.

Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change. (2021). Online RET Network Analysis. Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change. Available: Online RET Network Analysis - THE CENTRE FOR ANALYTICS AND BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE (cabc.org.za).

Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change. (2021). The Dirty Dozen & the amplification of incendiary content during the outbreak of unrest in South Africa July 2021. Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change. Available: The Dirty Dozen & the amplification of incendiary content during the outbreak of unrest in South Africa July 2021 - THE CENTRE FOR ANALYTICS AND BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE (cabc.org.za)  

Cronje, J. (2014, March 16). ‘Stellenbosch mafia’ controls SA – Malema. IOL News. https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/2014-03-16-stellenbosch-mafia-controls-sa-malema/ 

Daily Maverick. (2022, June 1). Ten revelations from the #GuptaLeaks that changed the course of SA. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-06-01-ten-revelations-made-by-the-guptaleaks-that-changed-the-course-of-sa/ 

Du Toit, P. (2019). The Stellenbosch Mafia: Inside the Billionaire’s Club. Jonathan Ball Publishers. 

Holden, P. (2023). Zondo at your Fingertips. Jacana Media. 

Nguyen, A., & Vu, H. T. (2019). Testing popular news discourse on the “echo chamber” effect: Does political polarisation occur among those relying on social media as their primary politics news source?. First Monday. 24(6). Available: https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v24i6.9632.