By Gillian Schutte
For years, South African media has been a playground for Western imperial interests, cloaked in the guise of democracy-building efforts. These platforms are quick to dismiss any critique against them as conspiracy.
But when one scratches beneath the surface of their “independent and progressive” journalism, the murky connections to Washington-funded organisations like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and its affiliates become evident.
Organisations such as Media Monitoring Africa (MMA), Daily Maverick, amaBhungane, and the ever-sanctimonious SANEF, are little more than foot soldiers in a neoliberal campaign designed to dictate South Africa’s political discourse. Not only are these groups compromising the country’s sovereignty but are actively engaged in a well-funded and vicious propaganda war against any media entity or individual that challenges the false consciousness of the Western hegemon. The primary target in this coordinated assault is Independent Media and its owner, Dr Iqbal Survé.
Independent Media’s ties with Chinese interests have placed it squarely in the firing line of so-called progressive media platforms and players. Their persistent attacks are not about journalistic integrity, as they claim, but are driven by geopolitics funded by Western backers. Independent Media’s promotion of South-South cooperation, its support of BRICS, and its platforming of voices that question Western economic and cultural dominance make it a significant threat to their hegemonic agenda. This is why there is a concerted agenda to neutralise Independent Media.
Many are misled by liberal propaganda, leaving them unable to recognise these attacks as part of a deliberate global strategy aimed at fostering Sinophobia and systematically demonising China. This orchestrated campaign, cloaked in the guise of human rights and democratic values, strategically aims to limit China's growing influence and maintain Western hegemony. Through the exploitation of existing racial prejudices and fears, Western-aligned media and NGOs spread disinformation and manipulate public opinion, ensuring that the narrative remains tilted in their favour. This psychological manipulation deepens the divide, obscuring the geopolitical motivations at play.
In South Africa, this strategy is evident in the targeted assault on Independent Media for engaging positively with China. The aim is obvious: isolate China and discredit any media or political entity aligned with it thereby reinforcing the dominance of Western narratives.
The recent ruling by the Press Council against Independent Media in favour of News24 journalist Karyn Maughn, where both MMA and Anton Harber played influential roles, points to the organised nature of this assault. Harber, the self-appointed guardian of journalistic ethics, along with MMA, acted as the moral arbiters of the industry while playing footsie with Western funding sources. The deceit of these liberals is, frankly, despicable. They parade their virtues, brandishing the flag of “press freedom” while receiving pats on the back and ensured funding from NED and/or its affiliates. The same NED, notorious for its extensive history of interfering in internal affairs, funds journalism that serves not to inform but to wage war. By paving the way with propaganda, it facilitates the destabilisation and decimation of countries resistant to market fundamentalism. How can those responsible reconcile such actions with their conscience at night?
Of course, these pretenders are quick to rubbish any critique of their mercenary modus operandi by constructing and disseminating all sorts of evils about their detractors. They employ all manner of deflective phrases such as whataboutism and write us off as conspiracy theorists. But this is not conspiracy theory. Research is unearthing evidence that National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and its network of affiliated organisations have been heavily involved in shaping South Africa’s information and mediascape since the country’s transition to democracy. Investigative journalist Roscoe Palm has tirelessly worked on exposing this overt and covert funding scheme. The silence around his work from the liberal press speaks volumes.
Obscure NED Funding Mechanism and Geopolitics
For those unaware, the historical role of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) as an indirect extension of CIA activities, promoting US interests abroad ostensibly as part of democracy-building initiatives. This role mirrors tactics from the Cold War, when similar operations were overtly conducted by US intelligence agencies. Research on the NED has largely overlooked its activities in South Africa, highlighting the importance of localised studies to fully understand the covert influences shaping mainstream media narratives. Such research sheds light on the subtle yet profound ways in which mainstream media conducts its ideological warfare against entities that challenge Western narratives, revealing a complex web of influence that manipulates public perception and aligns with specific geopolitical agendas.
Through strategic funding and partnerships with local media outlets and civil society groups, these organisations have systematically influenced public discourse, pushed a pro-Western narrative, and marginalised voices aligned with alternative political and economic perspectives. Notable South African entities openly displaying NED affiliated funding on their websites include Code for South Africa and the Solidarity Centre South Africa. Meanwhile, organisations like MMA, amaBhungane, the Institute for Journalism, Daily Maverick, and SANEF, amongst others, are mostly in partnerships with each other and are likely recipients as well, though they have been less transparent in disclosing all their funding sources. The obfuscation surrounding these funds is deliberately designed to conceal the true extent of Western influence in South Africa’s media space.
Research shows that NED, its affiliated donor organisations and their grant recipients have perfected the art of obscuring their financial trails through a complex network of intermediaries, including regional NGOs, independent foundations, and "philanthropic" institutions. This web of funding channels allows money to be routed in ways that effectively hide its origins. By the time the funds reach their final destination, any direct link to Washington or its geopolitical agenda is purposefully blurred, if not entirely severed from public perception.
It is a calculated strategy designed to deflect scrutiny and avoid accusations of foreign interference. Even when NED or another Western funder backs a project, the money is often funnelled into satellite initiatives operating under different names. This structure provides plausible deniability to both the recipients and the original funders, making it difficult for investigative journalists or critics to definitively connect the dots to entities like the U.S. government.
For instance, Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) (a partner organisation to Code for South Africa) brands itself as an independent guardian of media ethics and literacy but behind this façade lies a tangled network of funding sources directly linked to Western foreign interests. While MMA openly discloses some of its backers, such as the Open Society Foundations (OSF), it remains conspicuously vague about others, particularly those with ties to U.S. government-backed entities like NED.
These funds are then filtered through anonymous donors, making the connection to US government agendas nearly invisible to those who do not have the time and patience to connect the dots. An example of this is MADOAT, an MMA programme touted as an “online media advocacy tool that highlights the best and worst examples of media reporting on children in the media” is supported by Free Press Unlimited, which is affiliated with the Global Forum for Media Development. The Global Forum, in turn, receives core funding not only from Flanders Government Grants but also the NED.
This enmeshed funding chain reveals an interlocking of relationships with entities whose strategic interests align closely with those aimed at undermining entities like Independent Media and its owner, Dr Iqbal Survé. All of this points to a concerted effort to control media narratives and stifle voices that challenge Western unipolarism, with Independent Media as a significant focal target of this geopolitical attack strategy.
A Concerted Disinformation Campaign Against Independent Media
What we are witnessing in the South African liberal Media-scape is a well-coordinated disinformation campaign targeting Independent Media, motivated by funding streams that trace right back to Washington. The goal is simple: destabilise and delegitimise any media outlet that doesn’t toe the line. Independent Media’s coverage of China and its critical stance on Western interference provide the target for these liberal crusaders who see themselves as the gatekeepers of “correct” journalism. These attacks, disguised as a concern for journalistic standards, somehow manage to convince their mostly white neoconservative readers and the wider public of their integrity.
Daily Maverick, News24 and a network of media orgs of the same ilk have been at the forefront of this attack. They continuously frame Independent Media as the bad actor, selectively highlighting its financial woes and editorial choices as though these issues are unique to Dr Survé’s media house. But what they conveniently overlook is that their own houses are propped up by foreign funding from entities like NED, Open Society Foundations, and other Western-aligned “philanthropies” that come with ideological strings attached. It’s a well-oiled machine: the more you bash the ANC, demonise China and Russia and praise Western capitalism, the more you’re rewarded with grants and funding. It’s a sickening cycle of complicity that these so-called defenders of free speech have willingly signed up for.
Let’s not ignore the proverbial Golden Dragon in the room—Chinese state influence. The mainstream narrative pushed by the anti-Survé brigade would have us believe that Independent Media is the mouthpiece of Beijing, simply because of its partnerships with Chinese investors. But this critique is dripping with bloody-minded hypocrisy. For every piece of content republished from Xinhua or other Chinese outlets by Independent Media, there are hundreds of articles flooding our screens from Western wire services like Reuters, AFP, and Bloomberg, all promoting narratives aligned with U.S. and European interests. Where is the outrage over that?
A 2022 study by BC Han and Barry van Wyk, found on the Freedom House website, is a case in point. It focuses on Independent Media's connections with Chinese state entities and criticises the circulation of pro-China content. This propagandist piece though is nothing more than a liberal critique masquerading as objective analysis. The authors overlook the pervasive influence of Western propaganda across nearly all major South African media outlets, often repackaged as 'neutral' journalism. The underlying issue here is so not about journalistic integrity; it's about controlling the narrative. Independent Media's relationship with China threatens to offer an alternative to the prevailing discourse of dollar diplomacy and unipolarism peddled by its competitors. Freedom House, which was established in 1941 in Washington DC, not only receives US government funding but also has historical collaborations with the NED, which of course raise questions about its role in advancing specific geopolitical interests aligned with those of the NED.
A Cover-Up to Ensure the Brainwashing of our Generation and the Next
The attack on Independent Media is a textbook case of how liberal so-called “independent” media in South Africa has become weaponised by foreign interests. They position themselves as the ethical watchdogs of the industry through organisations like MMA and SANEF to provide cover for the real agenda—ensuring that South Africa remains tethered to Western geopolitical goals. These players are compromised actors, driven by foreign funding and rewarded for advancing narratives that serve the neoliberal world order.
Particularly insidious is how these media organisations are grooming the next generation to imbibe and perpetuate these narratives. MMA’s youth initiatives, such as the MMA Youth News, are nothing but training camps for future uniform neoliberal mouthpieces. Under the guise of media literacy and civic engagement, these programmes aim to indoctrinate young people into accepting the Western-centric view of democracy and development, leaving no room for alternative perspectives. It is child exploitation dressed up as empowerment.
We really have to collectively wake up to the manipulation by these geopolitical forces and be more serious about protecting South Africa’s sovereignty, especially after the public manipulation by liberal press that resulted in the soft coup that gave rise to the neo neoliberal Government of National Unity. Part of this strategy is to expose these nefarious funding streams and demand full transparency from every media outlet and civil society organisation that claims to operate in the public interest. Just as political parties are required to declare their funding sources, so too should these organisations. But transparency alone is not enough. As awake citizens we should demand that active steps are taken to regulate foreign funding in the media and civil society sectors. We cannot allow our national discourse to be dictated by entities that answer to Washington and Brussels rather than the people of South Africa.
In order to awaken from delusion of liberal propaganda it is imperative that we recognise that the ongoing campaign against Independent Media is nothing short of a geopolitical hit job, orchestrated by local actors who are more loyal to their foreign funders and their own comfortability than to the people of this country. The complicity of these liberal organisations and individuals in this assault is a disgrace.
To reiterate, they are not the champions of press freedom; they are mercenaries in service of a neoliberal capitalist agenda that has brought nothing but poverty, inequality, and division to our land. Now is the time to fight back against this treacherous takeover of our media spaces. The battle for our minds is a battle for our sovereignty—and that is a battle we cannot afford to lose.
* Gillian Schutte is a film-maker, and a well-known social justice and race-justice activist and public intellectual.
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.