#AlexShutdown: Mbalula must account for ANC’s Twitter bots inciting violence and peddling misinformation

9 April 2019

The Democratic Alliance cares deeply about the people of Alexandra, who are once again being failed the ANC,  a party of broken promises that is abusing their plight in an obvious attempt to rescue their failing campaign in Gauteng.

The DA has gathered evidence of a network Twitter accounts which were established at the end of March and the beginning of April this year ahead of the ANC-sponsored Alexandra Shutdown – with the clear intent of creating public confusion through fake news. Clearly the Bosasa war room that the ANC established in previous elections, has been resurrected.

The DA will report the ANC and its Campaign Head, Fikile Mbalula to the Independent Electoral Commission so that they are investigated, as part of the IEC’s stated intention to combat the spread of fake news.

These accounts were clearly created to peddle misinformation and incite civil unrest ahead of and during the Alexandra protests, with Mbalula, at the forefront of promoting these accounts. This a Bell Pottinger-like network of bots with links to Mbalula’s twitter handle with the purpose of spreading misinformation and propaganda about the #AlexShutdown.

This shows yet again that the Alex shutdown was a ANC sponsored campaign to destabilise the DA-led City of Johannesburg

The DA cares about the people of Alexandra and the struggles they have had to endure. Over the past two years Mayor Herman Mashaba has everything he can to address the plight of the people in this community and has committed himself to doing even more in the years to come. For 25 years the people of Alexandra have been on the receiving end of the ANC’s corruption and inability to bring true change to people of our country due to large scale corruption to the tune of billions.

Mbalula and the ANC are clearly running scared of the threat of a DA-led Gauteng government and change we will bring One South Africa for All.

Issued by Solly Malatsi, DA National Spokesperson, 9 April 2019