Know thy enemies, but not the facts

There is one sad reality about South Africans: If they do not like you, or if you have a bad reputation, they will never give you the benefit of the doubt nor, indeed, will they ever ask for proof of scurrilous allegations levelled against you. Remember the breathless front-page story about Jacob Zuma’s alleged palatial home in Dubai? People still believe that, even though not a shred of proof has been produced.

So, it is not at all surprising to see the froth of outrage among the ANC’s opponents – particularly the Democratic Alliance – about the “fact” that Iran is bankrolling the ANC in order to use it as a proxy in Tehran’s fight against Israel. This wonderful theory – as propagated first by well-known right-wing thinker Frans Cronje – has it that the Iranians gave the ruling party a massive cash injection which enabled it to suddenly banish its money worries.

The “theory” goes that the ANC used this money to pay off the R102 million debt it owed for election materials, plus pay for the lavish 112th birthday bash in Mbombela and set itself up nicely to fight the coming elections. All the ANC-hating “clevers” patted themselves on the back for having “joined the dots”.

Whether you could join those dots, or even if those dots existed somewhere other than the fevered brains of a propaganda campaign (Bell Pottinger anyone?) is another matter.

How did the Americans – who keep an eagle eye on all money movements to and from the Middle East – not cry wolf first? Did no-one notice, either, that the ANC, as well as a good proportion of South Africans, did not have to be bribed to take the side of the Palestinians? Since Madiba’s days, the ANC has backed Palestine and called for peace.

Facts still matter. Ignore that at your peril.