JOHANNESBURG—On the afternoon of March 9, a video on social media platform X went viral in South Africa.
It appears to show former U.S. President Donald Trump saying: “Greetings, all South Africans. My name is President Donald Trump. I urge all South Africans to vote for uMkhonto WeSizwe on 29 May.
“The African National Congress of Cyril Ramaphosa has failed all South Africans. With this new black party, led by President Jacob Zuma, all South Africans will matter.”
Tech experts soon confirmed that the video declaring Mr. Trump’s disdain for the governing ANC and support for the MK party was a “deepfake,” a video that has been manipulated using an algorithm to replace one person’s likeness convincingly with another.
South Africa goes to the polls in late May, an election that analysts forecast will be the most competitive in the country’s history.
Cybercrime investigators traced the Trump deepfake to Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, daughter of South Africa’s former president, Jacob Zuma.
The CIR report said the “super-influencer” was the “main amplifier” of the #IStandWithPutin and #IStandWithRussia campaigns that began on X shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
One of the CIR investigators, Phumzile van Damme, a South African specialist in counter-disinformation strategy and operations and United Nations adviser in the fields, told The Epoch Times: “Tweets and posts by Zuma-Sambudla spread like wildfire around Africa, and beyond, and were vital in winning huge support for Putin and Russia and promoting anti-West and specifically anti-American narratives.
“The Trump deepfake should be viewed within this context. It wasn’t shared on X by an anonymous account, or a run-of-the-mill user. It was distributed by a key player in Africa’s disinformation sphere and it was shared with malicious intent.”
Ms. Zuma-Sambudla didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Like their ANC counterparts, the 41-year-old and her 81-year-old father are frequent visitors to Moscow, where they’re often hosted by Mr. Putin’s United Russia Party.
Mr. Zuma is a former chief of ANC intelligence and once commanded the party’s military wing, uMkhonto weSizwe (Spear of the Nation), which was armed and funded by the Soviet Union and China from the early 1960s to early 1990s during its insurrection against apartheid.
Mr. Zuma led South Africa as the head of the ANC between 2009 and early 2018, when he was ousted by his then-deputy, Mr. Ramaphosa.
Mr. Zuma was sentenced to a 15-month jail term in 2021 for contempt of court after refusing to testify at an inquiry investigating corruption during his presidency.
Jean le Roux, of South Africa’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, told The Epoch Times: “Hours after her father’s arrest, Zuma-Sambudla tweeted ‘Let it Burn.’
“I presented evidence to various security agencies that she was behind one of the Twitter accounts used to celebrate the anarchy that followed.”
It found: “Social media platforms, whether open or closed, were utilized by individuals and specific groups to organize and aid in the spread of the unrest.
“These forums served to advance various agendas during the July 2021 unrest, including establishing collaborative networks, strategically spreading misinformation and disinformation, and mobilizing and celebrating looting and violence.”
Mr. Zuma spent only two months in prison before being freed on medical grounds.
A court later ruled that the release was illegal and that the former president should return to jail to serve the remainder of his sentence.
But he never did, as the ANC government argued that the prison system was “overcrowded.”
Mr. Ramaphosa pledged that all “inciters of violence” would be prosecuted, but Mr. Zuma and his daughter have never faced charges.
Mr. Zuma is set for trial this year on multiple counts of corruption, fraud, and money laundering related to a multimillion-dollar government arms deal in the 1990s, but he hasn’t been charged with any crime committed during his presidency.
He denies all allegations against him, claiming they’re part of a “political conspiracy” driven by Mr. Ramaphosa.
In December 2023, Mr. Zuma and his daughter started the Umkhonto WeSizwe (MK) party to contest the upcoming election, its stated aim being to end ANC rule.
At a media conference in Soweto, near Johannesburg, they said it was “time for the ANC to die.”
Flanked by armed bodyguards wearing military uniforms supplied by China, Mr. Zuma and Ms. Zuma-Sambudla branded the ANC a “proxy of white monopoly capital” that had “declared war against black professionals and intellectuals.”
This is the same messaging used in a recent flurry of pro-ANC social media posts and deepfakes to describe the Democratic Alliance (DA), the party seen as the greatest threat to ANC dominance.
Of these, it says, six are conducted by “Kremlin-linked actors,” two by “CCP [Chinese Communist Party]-linked actors,” and three by “domestic political actors.”
The report notes: “Russia has been the primary disinformation actor in South Africa.
“In addition to pushing narratives intended to polarise communities, fan distrust and bolster the ANC, Russia has used influential South Africans to promote pro-Russian narratives within South Africa and abroad.”
Some of the false audio recordings being distributed via channels such as WhatsApp and TikTok have DA officials admitting that their party is funded by the U.S. government and some of the United States’ leading businessmen.
In one recording, a voice sounding like that of DA member of Parliament Glynnis Breytenbach says the party has secured a large donation from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
On Jan. 30, Mr. Ramaphosa claimed that some Western countries might seek “regime change” in South Africa because of his administration’s pursuit of genocide charges against their ally, Israel, at the International Court of Justice, for Israel’s military operations in Gaza.
He said at an ANC meeting: “We are aware there will be systematic fightback campaigns. These forces will do anything in their power to prevent South Africa from concluding their case.
The DA is struggling to shake off a reputation, promoted by the ANC, that it represents the interests of white, suburban, middle-class South Africa, even though the DA is the country’s most racially diverse party.
The party, which is dedicated to “Western ideals of democracy,” is leading a coalition that surveys show could dethrone the ANC.
The DA says that should it get an opportunity to govern, it will “tear up all corrupt contracts and military alliances” the ANC has formed with “brutal dictatorships and kleptocracies,” especially those involving China, Russia, and Iran.
The ANC’s unpopularity has intensified in recent years, amid allegations of corruption, rampant violent crime, service delivery failures that leave millions of South Africans without water and electricity every day, and the world’s highest unemployment rate, almost 35 percent.
The Brenthurst survey puts support for the DA-led Multiparty Coalition (MPC) at 33 percent and says MK could win 13 percent of the vote.
Professor Dirk Kotze, of the politics department at the University of South Africa in Pretoria, told The Epoch Times that it’s MK, not the MPC, that could take down the ANC.
“Jacob Zuma remains an immensely popular figure, especially in rural areas that usually vote ANC,” he said.
“They love Zuma because he preaches Zulu tribalism; he presents himself as a simple man of the people; he talks their language; he comes from a village; he raises cattle; he carries spears, sings about machine guns, talks bad English, and dresses in leopard skins.
“Oh, and he also has six wives. He is the complete opposite of the ANC elite, which presents itself as sophisticated and superior.”
Mr. Kotze said MK, because of the “Zuma factor,” would “steal votes from the ANC and not from the DA or any other party.”
He said that the only route to “continued but weakened power” for the ANC would be for it to form a coalition government with smaller parties, possibly with the vehemently anti-West Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).
“This will of course be heavily dependent on how much of the vote the ANC and the EFF win,” Mr. Kotze said.
The Brenthurst survey indicates that EFF support is at 10 percent.
This “voice generator” allows users to select a celebrity avatar, including global leaders, input a script, and produce a video with the chosen celebrity seemingly uttering the scripted words.
Ms. Van Damme is currently a technology and human rights fellow at Harvard University, where she’s examining the ramifications of emerging technologies, with a particular focus on AI.
Emma-Louise Powell, the DA’s shadow minister of international relations, said her party “strongly suspects Russia’s hidden hand” in the disinformation campaign targeting it.
“These bots and fake videos depict us as racists who essentially want to sell Africa’s soul to the West,” she told The Epoch Times.
“What we’re dealing with here is an AI-driven campaign designed to erode our support by supposedly proving that we’re a front organization for the United States and other Western governments.
“We have bots and social media posts creating false statements about us not caring about the plight of impoverished black citizens, like showing images of black people living in squalor in areas where we control municipalities, like Cape Town, when millions live in worse conditions where the ANC has ruled for 30 years.”
Ms. Powell added: “We can’t say for sure what entities are behind this campaign against us. What we can say for sure is that the ANC’s current bedfellows are not exactly known for human rights and democracy.
“We know that China, Russia, and Iran have the technology to sow disinformation and misinformation during elections. They also have the motive to do so, because it’s in their interests to keep the ANC in power.
“South Africa, under the ANC, backs them up at the UN and provides them with critical minerals and precious metals. They could lose all these benefits if the ANC loses power.”
The ANC government has refused to condemn Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and Beijing’s human rights abuses. Its officials are frequent visitors to the Kremlin, and it has pledged closer military cooperation with China and Russia.
South Africa also successfully lobbied for Iran to join it, China, and Russia in the BRICS bloc of some of the world’s strongest emerging economies, which Tehran did in January.
South Africa is currently the only African representative on the U.N. Security Council, where, as a nonpermanent member, it consistently supports Russian and Chinese positions.
One of the letters is addressed to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. It asked him to help “ensure the integrity” of the vote and to “safeguard against any attempts to disrupt the democratic process.”
In response, ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula told The Epoch Times: “We don’t know why the DA is making such a fuss. Our party doesn’t need dirty tricks because we’re going to win the election by a large margin.
“But if we wanted to do dirty tricks we wouldn’t need Russian help to do so.”
The ANC, however, has a long track record of turning to Russia for help when it’s in trouble. It did so in 2022, when the party was on the brink of bankruptcy, according to ANC insiders.
The ANC has since confirmed that Mr. Vekselberg remains one of the party’s major financial backers.
“Given this context, and all the disinformation that’s being distributed, and the high stakes, I don’t think it’s unreasonable for us to request assistance from trusted partners to ensure that South Africa’s election is free and fair,” Ms. Powell said.
“Because of the ANC, we’re already close to being a failed state; we don’t want to add crisis-ridden and untrustworthy elections to that deadly cocktail.”
