SA and China needs to push back against disinformation and Western bias

South Africa and China must reclaim their narratives in the face of disinformation and Western editorial dominance, acting director-general of the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) Nomonde Mnukwa says.

Delivering a keynote address at the launch of the Sino-SA Media Club in Pretoria, Mnukwa warned that biased portrayals from the global north distort perceptions of both countries.

“We need to tell our own stories. If we don’t, others will continue to shape the media and international relations landscape,” she said.

Once negative perceptions gain traction, they become “unmoveable objects”, she warned.

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International news flows, she said, are concentrated in “a few hands, far away from the global south”.

Too often, South Africa’s story is filtered through lenses of “crisis, poverty or corruption”.

Mnukwa pointed to South Africa’s principled neutrality and its relationship with China, which she said has been distorted despite decades of solidarity with China.

“With intensifying geopolitics, they conveniently forget that we are a long-standing proponent of non-alignment,” she said.

False info deliberately circulated

Since 1994, South Africa has advocated strategic independence, multilateralism and dialogue in resolving conflicts, she added.

But “we find ourselves in an era often defined by who shouts the loudest”, she said, recalling how one country – an apparent reference to the US – dismissed a G20 summit hosted by South Africa as “the worst”, despite widespread praise for the organisation of the summit.

She also cited the risks of social media as alternative sources lack rigorous checks and “a disturbing trend where false information is deliberately circulated to drive an agenda”.

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