Beware - the daily erosion of freedoms in SA

WHEN asked to write a column on Freedom Day, I did not immediately agree. It is not only because I don’t like writing, but I wondered what I would say that another would not already have said, or would say with greater eloquence than I could.

- NEESHAN BALTON

I have been thinking about what little freedom we have over our own lives in many ways and how this has become worse in recent times. One of the biggest tramplers of freedom is the immense misinformation and disinformation that goes on daily.

South Africans woke up to another Donald Trump lie a few days ago. He wrote on his social media platform: “How can we be expected to go to South Africa for the very important G20 meeting when land confiscation and genocide is the primary topic of conversation? They are taking the land of white farmers and then killing them and their families. The media refuses to report on this... Is this where we want to be for the G20? I don’t think so!”

The fact that there has been no land confiscation from white farmers, or that there is no white genocide happening has not and will not stop him from repeating such lies and from this being believed by many of his followers in the USA and South Africa. Ignore it, some argue. That would be easy if these lies did not have consequences for the lives of many, who have lost their jobs and access to vital medication. The many who will lose their businesses in the auto industry and the agricultural sector will add to the devastation of the lies.