‘If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth’
THE ARTICLE by Lebohang Keswa under the headline “Evidence is clear for all to see” (The Star, February 10) tells an eccentric tale which, if it were not riddled with exaggerations and halftruths, would win an Oscar nomination.
Lebohang Keswa’s regurgitation of claims made by Ms Sihle Bolani in her failed court application against the ANC cannot be left unchallenged.
For the past couple of weeks, Ms Bolani has been on a mission to tarnish the image of the ANC and those of us associated with it to the extent of fabricating stories that some have been happy to peddle.
The truth of the matter is that Ms Bolani’s many claims, including one that she was part of what the media refers to as a “black-ops” unit orchestrated by the ANC, are inherently false.
It is unfortunate that she seems to believe in Joseph Goebbels’ famous dictum, that “if you repeat a lie often enough it becomes the truth.”
The truth is that I and a few other volunteers made a decision to be actively involved in campaigning for the ANC in the past elections.
All volunteers understood that our main purpose was to promote the values and virtues of the movement to potential voters and to assist the ANC to gather as many votes as possible.
This is something that I have proudly and unapologetically been doing for the past 18 years.
As volunteers, we are well aware of the provisions of the electoral code and are always careful not to break the law in our electioneering work.
It is common knowledge that the work of electioneering requires resources which we work hard to raise in addition to using our own resources.
In this case, not enough donors and sponsors came on board and as a consequence we took the decision to abandon the initiative.
I am aware that a figure of R50 million has been bandied about by the media but this is clearly the figment of someone’s imagination.
It would be good to raise such an amount because the troubles that Ms Keswa lists in her article would not have caused the project to collapse. Ms Bolani, being part of the volunteers in this initiative, is well aware that even with all our good intentions we failed to raise enough resources to sustain the initiative.
At no point did we go out of our way to undertake what Ms Keswa refers to as “underhanded operations” against opposition parties. That we planned to cartoon or engage in lampoon activities against opposition parties is nothing underhand.
In electioneering work it is common practice that supporters will always ridicule and criticise each other’s statements and policy positions or promises. Attempting to make this out to be something more than that is disingenuous and misleading.
I can confirm that I certainly worked with Ms Bolani as part of the media team. However, the role that she assigns to herself as part of this team is greatly exaggerated. As indicated above, any payments towards the work implemented by all volunteers were contingent on available resources.
In the article by Ms Keswa, I was accused by Ms Bolani of “utter incompetence”, including coming to work drunk or attending meetings with clothes from “yester-night”. These are blatant lies.
It is also utter rubbish that I have been gagged by the ANC to not “engage in a public spat with Bolani”. Ms Keswa also insinuates in her article that I am sexist and undermine women. I was raised by strong women and work closely with women. I therefore find these insinuations ridiculous.
That Ms Bolani and I differed on certain aspects of the implementation of this initiative is not odd, but it is silly to interpret such differences of opinion as undermining her as a woman.
Those of us who support the ANC will not be deterred by this propaganda. We will continue to support the ANC in the same way in the coming elections. Shaka Sisulu
ANC supporters are adamant ‘propaganda’ will not deter them