Youtube removes Roman Cabanac's fake news post

17 October 2021

Mr Roman Cabanac is a member of the Capitalist Party of South Africa (Purple Cows) and is evidently closely aligned with the Democratic Alliance. He is working at “making the DA great again” according to one of his recent social media posts.

Earlier this week, Mr Cabanac posted a number of Tweets and a Youtube video alleging that a resident of Nelson Mandela Bay, Mr Earl Pillay, is a member of GOOD.

This was fake news. Mr Pillay is not a member of GOOD - he resigned after the 2019 elections.

In the video that Mr Cabanac shared, a person is seen to be assaulting a woman.

GOOD welcomes the report that the woman who was attacked has applied for a protection order against the perpetrator.

GOOD is anti-racist and fiercely opposed to gender-based violence. We do not tolerate either. GOOD’s leader, Patricia de Lille has said many times, that “you do not need to be black to fight racism; you do not need to be a woman to fight gender-based violence.”

GOOD welcomes YouTube removing Mr Cabanac’s fake news post. Stealing elections through the circulation of fake news or election disinformation undermines democracy.

Regrettably, Mr Cabanac has chosen to repost the fake news elsewhere and continues to peddle election disinformation. I have now reported this case to the IEC for further action. The Municipal Electoral Act makes it an offence to punish false information.

During elections, we must keep up the fight against racism and gender-based violence – but we must also work together to fight fake news.

Issued by Karabo Tledima, Media Manager, GOOD, 17 October 2021