Evidence of Helen Zille's fake news posts submitted to Disinformation Watchdogs
28 September 2021
GOOD has submitted evidence of Helen Zille sharing a highly manipulated video on her social media channels. The electronic evidence has been submitted to two independent watchdog organisations for further investigation.
Peter de Villiers, the former National coach of the Springbok rugby team, announced his candidacy to stand for Mayor of the Drakenstein Municipality at midday on the 12th September 2021.
Hours after his announcement, Helen Zille shared a video of Mr Peter de Villiers. The original post, which Zille shared shortly before 6pm on the 12th September 2021, is from the DA’s Mr Nicholas Gotsell’s social media page (https://www.facebook.com/ngotsell/videos/10155888605131933).
Zille, when she shared the video on the 12th September 2021, added her own recommendation to her followers that this is “An interesting endorsement for GOOD. Take a look.” The post was shared on both her Twitter and Facebook social media pages, which have 1.4 million and 253,051 followers respectively.
The video Zille shared was an edited version of a News24 video where Mr Peter de Villiers explained why he supported GOOD and Patricia de Lille.
In the edited version of video shared by Zille on the 12th September 2021, de Villiers is heard saying “Let me tell you why I support the GOOD party of Patricia de Lille. She has a history of corruption and that is why I want to encourage you to vote GOOD …”
It is clear in the video shared by Zille that the de Villiers’s speech had been heavily edited. The original version of the video arises from a 2019 endorsement of de Lille and GOOD.
In this original full video statement (available freely online on the News24 website), de Villiers says (sections deleted by the Zille version are highlighted in bold):
“Let me tell you why I support the GOOD party of Patricia de Lille.
Many of us who have worked very hard to improve ourselves, our families and our country, don’t receive due acknowledgement for our labour.
South Africa will be a great nation when it learns to place equal value on its people, regardless of colour.
The Patricia de Lille I know has opposed injustice and still continues to fight corruption.
She has a history of corruption busting and principled leadership and that is why I want to encourage you to vote GOOD …”
Since Zille shared Gotsell’s post, City of Cape Town DA Councillor Ian Iverson said “And the Good party actually sent out that message,” other social media followers laughed, whilst some queried the video’s authenticity. One social media user noted that even a 10 year old could see that “this video clip had been tampered with and had been manipulated in such a way that words had been cut out. Does this mean Helen Zille is not older than 10 yrs of age? A very bad attempt at playing party politics. Actually shameful!”
Following several complaints, Zille appears to have deleted these posts from her own pages, but Gotsell’s post remains online aand the fake video has now moved to other networks. Members of the public in several metros have reported that the edited fake version of the de Villiers video is being distributed via WhatsApp channels.
“Fake news is a treacherous method to steal elections. The spreading of fake news and manipulated media is a dangerous risk to democracy across the globe.” said Rountree. “I have submitted a time-stamped recording of Zille’s Facebook page post to two independent social media watchdogs for further investigation.”
Real411, the disinformation monitoring body run by Media Monitoring Africa, has assessed the evidence (https://www.real411.co.za/complaints-view/jrxy6cj6) and indicated that a decision from the IEC is now required.
Issued by Mark Rountree, National Policy Officer for GOOD, 28 September 2021
