In seeking to attack the entire Sekunjalo Group, its associated companies, and Dr Iqbal Survé, Chairman of Sekunjalo Investment Holdings, Jean Le Roux, a research assistant at the Atlantic Council funded Digital Forensic Lab (DFRLabs), has himself strayed into the realm of deception, propaganda, and disinformation.
He is guilty of the very things he has accused “Sekunjalo” and Independent Media of in his article entitled: Paid influencers and sock puppets drove social media campaign targeting SA banks that cut ties with Iqbal Survé’s Sekunjalo, which was published on the Medium and Daily Maverick platforms on July 2, 2021.
Le Roux’s article is shoddy journalism, poorly constructed, badly referenced without evidence, and conflates several autonomous ideas and constructs, as well as companies.
For an international research organisation to get it so wrong is extremely concerning.
We wish to correct Mr Le Roux (and by association, the platforms on which his “facts" were conveyed).
For a start, Mr Le Roux has wrongly coalesced Sekunjalo Independent Media (SIM) with Sekunjalo Investment Holdings (SIH) under the banner of "Sekunjalo“. SIM is a special purpose vehicle that was created for the purpose of purchasing Independent Media from its previous Irish owners. SIH is a privately owned investment group that has invested in several businesses in South Africa and globally. They are not the same organisation at all.
Mr Le Roux asserts that “Sekunjalo” is “at the heart of a disinformation campaign” and “one that uses racialised narratives as a backdrop for disinformation operations”. This is an extremely serious accusation and one that Mr Le Roux offers zero evidence of in his article. It is also unclear as to whether he is referring to SIM or SIH or any of the other Sekunjalo-investee companies.
As a research journalist, Mr Le Roux falls short. He should be aware that the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) has never invested in Sekunjalo, as claimed in his article. Sekunjalo is also not involved in any litigation whatsoever with the PIC. His claims, otherwise, are slanderous and can only be seen as deliberate to mislead his readers.
About ABSA and FNB severing ties with Sekunjalo – Mr Le Roux has fallen into the same mistaken belief that “Sekunjalo” had accounts with either of these banks. Sekunjalo did not and does not.
Most worryingly, though, is Mr Le Roux’s assertion that the #RacistBanksMustFall campaign on social media, that revealed deep-seated concerns by citizens of this country over how they are perceived and treated, was a "disinformation“ campaign. In so doing, Mr Le Roux has undermined a legitimate problem, one of discrimination, that still faces much of South Africa’s electorate nearly 30 years post democracy.
In bringing to the fore their observation of how black-owned and managed companies have been historically and even presently treated, the companies whose banking facilities were summarily withdrawn by ABSA and FNB (without due cause) opened the opportunity for much-needed debate.
How that conversation unfolded on social media cannot be blamed on SIH or any of the companies that it has invested in. To allude otherwise, is disingenuous and smacks of an agenda-driven campaign, by Le Roux, Medium, and potentially, the Daily Maverick on whose platform his article found a home.
Further, Le Roux infers an affiliation between Mr Modibe Modiba and his Insight Factor media platform. Mr Modiba is not employed by Independent Media, although he is a contributor in his personal capacity to various media platforms, including Independent Media.
Sekunjalo Investment Holdings demands an immediate and public apology as well as a correction from Le Roux and DFRLabs for the grave errors and inferences contained in the fabrication that masqueraded as a “researched” article.