SA and China Must Counter Disinformation and Western Media Bias

South Africa’s media officials are urging a reclamation of narrative control in the face of what they describe as biased Western portrayals of both South Africa and China.

Speaking at the launch of the Sino-SA Media Club in Pretoria, Nomonde Mnukwa, acting director-general of the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS), emphasized the critical importance of self-representation in global media.

“We need to tell our own stories. If we don’t, others will continue to shape the media and international relations landscape,” Mnukwa stated, warning that once negative perceptions gain momentum, they become “unmoveable objects” in public consciousness.

According to Mnukwa, international news flows remain concentrated in “a few hands, far away from the global south,” resulting in South African narratives frequently being reduced to stories of “crisis, poverty or corruption.” This narrow framing fails to capture the nation’s complexity and achievements since the end of apartheid.

The official expressed particular concern about mischaracterizations of South Africa’s international relationships, especially its ties with China. She noted that decades of solidarity between the two nations are often overlooked in Western media coverage, which tends to view such relationships through an increasingly polarized geopolitical lens.

“With intensifying geopolitics, they conveniently forget that we are a long-standing proponent of non-alignment,” Mnukwa said, highlighting South Africa’s consistent policy stance since the democratic transition in 1994.

South Africa has maintained a position of strategic independence in foreign affairs, advocating for multilateralism and dialogue-based conflict resolution throughout its democratic era. This approach has sometimes put the country at odds with Western powers expecting alignment with their positions on global issues.

The GCIS official referenced a recent incident where a major global power, in an apparent reference to the United States, dismissed a G20 summit hosted by South Africa as “the worst,” despite widespread international recognition of the event’s successful organization. Such characterizations, she suggested, reveal the prejudices that can influence international reporting on South African affairs.

Mnukwa also addressed the complex media landscape created by social media, where traditional journalistic standards are often absent. She pointed to “a disturbing trend where false information is deliberately circulated to drive an agenda,” complicating efforts to present accurate representations of South African realities.

The establishment of the Sino-SA Media Club appears to be part of a broader effort to strengthen media cooperation between South Africa and China, two BRICS nations that have deepened their economic and political ties over recent years. China has become South Africa’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade reaching approximately $39 billion in 2021, representing a significant shift in South Africa’s economic relationships away from traditional Western partners.

This media initiative comes amid growing competition between China and Western nations for influence across Africa. While Western critics often characterize Chinese engagement with African nations as exploitative or designed to create dependency, South African officials have frequently highlighted the benefits of their relationship with Beijing, particularly in infrastructure development and economic cooperation.

The push for narrative sovereignty reflects broader concerns across the African continent about how African nations are portrayed in global media, with many leaders calling for more agency in shaping international perceptions of their countries, economies, and policies.

As geopolitical tensions intensify globally, South Africa’s position as a significant voice in the global south and its careful balancing act between major powers makes its media representation particularly consequential for both domestic politics and international relations.