Battle for hearts and minds

PEACEKEEPING: NEW WEAPONS ARE FAKE NEWS, BARRAGE OF DISINFORMATION

- SIPHIWE DLAMINI

South Africa last week bade farewell as a nation to 14 of its bravest sons and daughters; soldiers who died keeping the peace in a country far from their motherland.

In the immortal words of John Maxwell Edmunds, for our tomorrow, they gave their today.

There will be other more intimate farewells as the families of slain members of the Southern Africa Mission to the DRC (SAMIDRC) and Monusco missions lay their loved ones to rest.

The pain will not lessen - but neither will the importance of their having been in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as a bulwark against the offensive of the M23 rebel group, a contagion which has not just infected one of the biggest countries in the continent, but affects all of us.

There has been plenty of debate, some informed, others wilfully misinformed, about why South Africa deployed elements of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) there.

There is an understandable desire by all of us to know exactly why our soldiers were attacked and why they had to fight for their lives to survive.

But the war in the Eastern DRC has not ended, instead it has segued into another theatre, a vicious psychological battle for our hearts and minds.

The new weapons of choice are fake news and a steady barrage of disinformation.

Not all the commentariat has the truth as their goal, many elements are hard at work pursuing a more cynical agenda to control the narrative and score political and personal goals.