The claim by former president Jacob Zuma that President Cyril Ramaphosa is a CIA spy is outrageous and unsubstantiated.
Over the past 30 years, many of our prominent leaders were accused of being CIA and MI6 agents, allegations that were proven to be outright lies and crude acts of blatant disinformation.
A sinister war of political attrition is in full swing, it’s devious aim is to eliminate leaders of moderation.
It’s one aspect of political immorality that has yet to prompt the kind of moral outrage that should unmask the pervasiveness of lies and deception in the current political atmosphere.
South Africans are witnessing an ugly battle for political supremacy, as leaders jostle for poll position in 2022 at the ANC elective conference.
The attack on leaders in highprofile positions is tantamount to character assassination.
It is a particularly repugnant tactic and has been extensively deployed throughout our history. As the race for 2022 rolls on, why hasn’t there been greater condemnation of leaders who lie?
Is it that people are simply ignorant of the fact that they are being lied to, and they are not motivated, for a variety of reasons? Unfounded allegations are levelled to discredit public figures in a hysteric atmosphere.
Slander, distortion, fabrication and sophistry are the tools of the trade. Goebels, Hitler’s propaganda minister, believed that the bigger the lie, the more convincing. Machiavelli taught that the ends justify the means. Both “principles” are applied in character assassination.
The daily barrage of accusations is libellous and can cause damage that no retraction can erase.
Fabricating lies is not just a disease of our era but it is a cancerous syndrome that has eaten, plundered and ravaged the entire South African body politic.
Our politics should not be turned into contests for the determination of who can insult the most, lie the most, scandalise the most, malign the most. If the spirit of the primacy of the common good were to animate all our politicians, we would not be witnessing character assassinations, slander and malice in our political campaigns which leave the public dismayed and disheartened. Politics in South Africa has now been dominated by political immorality, where good norms and political values have been discarded for various reasons.
* Farouk Araie, Joburg.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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