Cape Town — A robbery at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm in the province of Limpopo made headlines in June, 2022 when it was revealed that over U.S.$4 million was stolen from the property. Ramaphosa denied any criminality relating to the fortune and complied with the investigation that followed. “President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledges that while there is much public interest and concern about claims made in a criminal complaint against him, he remains firmly focused on the task of rebuilding the economy and the country,” spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said at the time.
According to The Namibian, former South African spy boss and prisons head Arthur Fraser accused Namibian President Hage Geingob and Ramaphosa of a high-level cover-up in concealing the theft. Geinbob claimed he was “confused” over the allegations. According to Fraser, Ramaphosa asked Geingob to help find the suspects in Namibia using unofficial channels. “President [Ramaphosa] sought the assistance of the president of Namibia, Hage Geingob, in apprehending the suspects in Namibia,” Fraser said.
Public interest prompted much social media discussion around the heist and formed the basis for a report by the Center for Analytics and Behavioural Change (CABC). It found that suspicious online behaviour was behind a planned effort to manipulate the narrative around the theft. A key finding was that that a group of Twitter users were unusually active in their use of the #PhalaPlalaFarmGate hashtag. Additionally, these accounts only accounted for 0.2% of users engaged in the topic but contributed 20% of posts relating to it.
The report echoes similar findings made by the Institute for Security Studies on how disinformation via social media may be used to manipulate citizens for political purposes. This is in contrast to misinformation, where incorrect information is spread rapidly among online users who haven’t verified the facts and was often found to have occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to The Conversation.
The CABC investigation analysed patterns of online engagements on social media platforms between June 1, 2022 and September 15, 2022. The report found that some of the Twitter accounts involved were also encountered by the CABC when investigating the July 2021 unrest. This “network”, the organisation said, is focused on manufacturing online dissent as well as stoking resentment toward President Ramaphosa.