The Luthuli house assets attachment has information warfare written all over it.

To the naked and innocent eye, the logic of the ANC's appeals on a debt collection issue puts the ANC in gross disrepute. It puts into question the calibre of leadership, especially the financial management capability, past and present, of the ANC on trial in a court of public opinion. As the ANC tries to explain the real issues, and it has not done well, it is simultaneously losing the information war. It is doubtful if there is an awareness that this might be a battle where media interest is not in the facts of the case.

The known facts are that the ANC received a service from the complainant, the service provider raised an invoice, and the ANC has not honoured the invoice. The service provider exhausted all avenues to get paid, and getting a court order was the only way its claim could be legitimate. What is unclear in the public space is why the ANC would go to such lengths to appeal the judgements on this matter instead of paying. The belief in the correctness or winnability of the case by the ANC is so strong that it even has a dimension they believe the Constitutional Court can come to a different decision. This is notwithstanding the associated reputational costs in a consequential election year. 

Without sounding conspiratorial in this rendition, indeed, the ANC is currently the power everyone wants to be seen speaking truth to. It holds the ultimate prize in politics: State Power. It sits at the policy centre of the distribution prowess of government for the three trillion rands public sector spending budget. Any dysfunction within the ANC will always be an opportunity to deploy resources to win the broader war for political power in South Africa.

Modern political battles are fought and decided by how adversaries shape the narrative about each other in a court of public opinion. The information space has become more important than the correctness of the facts, especially their interpretation thereof. Impugning the credibility or reputation of a political adversary has been included as one of the 'soft war' strategies to weaken an adversary. This is acutely worse in a democracy where the adversary commands a historical moral high ground.  

In contexts where political power contestation favours adversaries with a past legitimising their claim to political power, their reputation as incumbents is what is available to erode their political support. Investment by adversaries in the 'soft power' of narratives has become a critical science of winning wars, including electoral contests. This explains why modern armies have prioritised cognitive battles. The centre of their planning is more about the legitimacy of victory than the substantive issues related to those who will lose the battle. This has led armies to invest in command structures in the information operational environment. 

The extent to which information about an adversary is weaponised is as important as causing the loss of key personnel. In the context that the ANC finds itself, it will be how its adversaries succeed in the management of perceptions society has about the ANC, which might be decisive in the next election. Having embraced the accused number one position amongst those in the dock for corruption, any detail that can add to the barrage of information eating on the ANC’s reputation becomes important relative to the date of elections. 

Emerging from a reputation tormenting commission of inquiry into State Capture, how the ANC frames its response to matters has become important to celebrity journalism and populist political adversaries. The burden of bigness and accountability demands of being the governing party has put a demand for communication sophistication the ANC does not seem to be commanding. Falsehoods, and sometimes truth, move quickly in the cyber world where any response is either late or blocked from reaching micro-cyber societies governed by followership owners. 

A torrent of information on the 'failure of the ANC' to honour its debt obligations, true or false, has now flooded the same social media platforms where the fastest search on state capture and corruption puts a South African story on the top ten search outcomes. Social media algorithm design has South Africa's leading corruption narratives, which is global. Given the outrage on state capture narratives and the concretising view that there is no consequence management, the ANC debt might repudiate whatever reputational gains it made in the aftermath of a punishing Zondo Commission Report. 

Combatants in a narrative war can be ruthless. With data analytics advancements, their audience targeting precision, which is measurable and available in the market, has emboldened them to believe they can switch public perception at selected moments. The more information, true or false, they have to invalidate an adversary, the better it is for them to win the hearts and minds of those outraged by South Africa's leadership dysfunction. That the ANC is cooperating with the demands of the rule of law is unimportant for the current objectives of the narrative. 

The evidence of political party funding in South Africa should be enough to show the ANC that it does not enjoy the endearment of its financially resourced elites. As one scholar once put it, "The ANC represents the repudiation of white supremacy or whiteness. No other political movement has placed the issue of racism on the global agenda than the ANC. Its conception of apartheid and colonialism of a special type challenges even its allies who still have worse than apartheid practices on ethnic groups in their sovereign jurisdictions." Thus, it will be prudent for the ANC to subject its responses to an analysis context that carries along its reality. 

Notwithstanding, the ANC should demonstrate that this debt issue is not an irresponsibility of management. This episode is embarrassing unless new and credible information comes to the fore. If the ANC can ask its members to donate a minimum of R10, it might get relief from its resources.  Why they don't do it is a spiritual question. CUT!!