A disturbing trend has emerged since the attempted palace coup on the legitimate leadership of the Congress of the People. The communications machinery of the movement has been taken over by individuals who are not, and have never been delegated spokespersons of COPE. Like any aspirant anti-democratic dictatorship, the now derailed Shilowa Express realized that propaganda was the key to winning the popular support before, during and after their putsch. Realizing this, they ruthlessly seized the communications structures and protocols of the organization and set about selling their own version of events, past, present and future to the media and to COPE supporters on the ground. This mugging was well orchestrated and incredibly well resourced. So how did it fail so spectacularly?
The failure of the propaganda campaign run by the so-called communications "experts" of the Shilowa Express, rests on two inconvenient realities; that such a strategy was devoid of truth, and secondly, it spoke to a communications strategy that is unfeasible in the new media of the 21st century. In a world of Facebook, Mxit, Twitter and a wide variety of blogs, people on the ground have much broader access to many sources of information, giving ordinary citizens the tools with which to disseminate the truth. Had these end user communications platforms existed in Germany in 1933, World War II could have been nipped in the bud by a popular revolution fuelled by the free flow of information between individuals, societies and nations.
The authoritarian nature of media releases issued by Shilowa's factionalists were very easily ripped to shreds as credible information was always available from numerous well connected sources who were not afraid to counter the lies with hard facts captured on official documents. In the 20th century, statements issued by the factionalists would have been seen as the final word, empirical in all respects with no correspondence or debate being entered into. Unfortunately for propagandists, we live in an age where information travels at the speed of thought, and the number of citizens with access to all communications platforms seemingly grows at an exponential rate with each passing month.
Shilowa's attempt to knock out the official communications medium of COPE was both crass and clumsy, ultimately leading to the downfall. COPE President Mosiuoa Lekota was ambushed by his own party's communications officials at COPE HQ publically on the radio. JJ Tabane used his platform as Head of the Technical Committee for the aborted and illegal elective congress to pronounce on a number of matters outside of his delegated authority.
Head of Communications and COPE Spokesperson, Phillip Dexter, was systematically sidelined, removed from his position and eventually reinstated, while in my capacity as COPE's Parliamentary Media Liaison, I was blocked from issuing media statements by the General Secretary. She also abused her authority by ordering that the views of individual members on the COPE Facebook site that critically questioned the motives and methodology of the Shilowa Express were censored and deleted. In some cases individuals were banned from using this platform altogether.
The administrative and IT heads were so preoccupied with this propagandistic and factional agenda, they took their eye off the ball with regard to their mandated core responsibilities.
This was evidenced by an embarrassing cyber attack on the official COPE website, a black stain on the reputation of the Head of IT. The IT Department has a history of censorship and factionalism. Just ask Simon Grindrod, who was banned from the COPE Facebook group after his memorandum was leaked and his subsequent resignation. IT Manager, Loyiso Tyira then went on record in the media as saying that this was an "administrative error". Rather, it was symptomatic of the shape of things to come.
Now that allegations of financial impropriety by Shilowa are gaining traction in the public domain, pronouncements by false prophets like Tabane, Nkuhlu and Ngwema are looking more like bald faced lies. And yet these individuals continue to vent their own special brand of nonsense to any and all publications. Often statements issued by the Shilowa Express splinter group of the Congress of the People are factually inaccurate, for example stating that audited financial statements were handed to Parliament. The auditors clearly state that it is NOT an audit.
For the record, Phillip Dexter is the only spokesperson mandated by the highest decision making body of COPE, the Congress National Committee, to speak officially on matters pertaining to the party on a national platform. The communications of provinces, regions and interim structures remain intact as per the status quo before the Battle of St George's, i.e. having to clear any and all statements through the National Body.
Despite the best attempts of certain individuals, Roscoe Palm is STILL COPE's Parliamentary Media Liaison officer. He writes in his personal capacity.
Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter
