Seeing Red: A response to Ray Hartley

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Editor’s note – This right of response piece was submitted to Daily Maverick as a reply to Ray Hartley of the Brenthurst Foundation. The Daily Maverick has refused to publish it.

Two weeks ago leaked documents widely circulated on WhatsApp showed that Greg Mills of the Brenthurst Foundation is using his cover as an editor-at-large for the Daily Maverick when he is really a propagandist for the rich and powerful imperialist countries. They also showed that the Daily Maverick editor, Branko Brkic, is directly supporting this crude violation of basic journalistic ethics.

Following the wide circulation of these leaked documents, Roscoe Palm wrote a piece noting Mills’ links to White capital in South Africa, as well as NATO and a set of key figures in the US and UK military establishment, one of whom has almost certainly worked as an intelligence agent. These links are public facts gleaned from Mills’ online biography and the Brenthurst Foundation website.

The Daily Maverick wields considerable power in our society and like every powerful actor in society, it should be subject to public scrutiny. The fact that it is now clearly playing the role of a propaganda tool for the West is a matter of national interest and should be discussed openly and frankly.

The substance of the matter is that of journalistic ethics. Palm’s piece was about precisely this; the extraordinary violation of the minimum acceptable standards of responsible journalism by the Daily Maverick. Palm and I had written about this on previous occasions.

The response to his piece did not come from any of the editors of the Daily Maverick, who are the people who should have to account for the fact that its editor-at-large on international issues is funded by white capital and openly embedded in the US/UK/NATO security and intelligence establishment.

Instead, the piece came from Ray Hartley, Mills’ colleague at the Brenthurst Foundation. Hartley simply ignored the very real ethical issues relating to the role that the Brenthurst Foundation has within the Daily Maverick. Just as with the Daily Maverick’s staggering failure to retract and apologise for its article on Eskom based on a fraudulent dossier produced by a former apartheid agent. The “Eskom Cartel” story is the most destructive piece of fake news since the SARS rogue unit fake dossier and should be treated with the same seriousness.

As Palm noted it is highly likely that the Daily Maverick published fake news based on a fake dossier while other publishers refused to do so because the unsubstantiated and frankly ridiculous claims of a Russian hand in Eskom corruption were a good fit with its now hysterically propagandistic and paranoid approach to the new Cold War.

The fact that in his piece, Hartley refers to Mills as a Daily Maverick “correspondent” rather than Daily Maverick “editor-at-large” is also notable. Mills wears two hats simultaneously – one as an actor in helping to shape and implement the geostrategic programme of Western alliances, and the other to shape and direct the editorial position of the Daily Maverick. This reduces the publication to being a content funnel for the US/NATO military industrial complex, and this is clear by the voluminous Brenthurst-sponsored copy that finds a home on the Daily Maverick.

That is the principle of the matter, but rather than address this directly, Hartley’s response to Palm’s piece is filled with factual inaccuracies, lies and slander that requires a direct response:

1. As noted, the piece published on the Pan-African Institute for Socialism (PAIS) website was authored by Roscoe Palm, who manages the site, and creates the majority of the content. There are no secrets here and anyone wanting to know about the authorship of the piece only had to ask.

2. The attempt to call South Africa Russia’s “friend” is so infantile it beggars belief that an adult wrote this. The complexities of global politics and diplomacy cannot be reduced to “who is friends with who”. South Africa, like many other countries in the Global South, has taken a non-aligned position on the war currently being fought in Ukraine, a war that all serious analyst across the political spectrum understand as a proxy war between the US/NATO and Russia being fought in Ukraine. When, for example, South Africa undertakes military exercises with Russia this does not mean that it is aligned to Russia. After all, South Africa also undertakes military exercises with the United States. You don’t hear Hartley or Mills complaining about that.

The fact is that the South African government has always called for a cessation of hostilities between Ukraine and Russia. I personally support this position, as does PAIS. A cessation of hostilities requires four things;

• The USA, its allies and NATO must stop using Ukraine as a proxy to fight a war against Russia.

• All parties to the conflict must agree to cease operations while negotiations are underway

• Ukraine must demobilize all Nazi paramilitary groups.

• There must be a new global deal that ensures real multi-polarity, real global order and stops this type of aggression by ALL parties.

3. Hartley’s caricature of all “left-leaning” people as living in a time-warp of the “Eastern Bloc” is trite. If this is how we speak about people with whom we have political differences, then we may as well say that he is a White man living in a time-warp of white supremacy.

4. Hartley, who works for an organisation funded by White capital accumulated during apartheid and in collaboration with apartheid, and directly linked to the US and UK military/intelligence complex, implies that PAIS, like he is, is subsidized by some shadowy political forces. Well, sadly, we don’t have the fruits of colonialism and super-exploitation to live off. We are a new organisation staffed by two people drawing on a small but enthusiastic network of volunteers. Both staff members work for PAIS part time, which is self-funded. We would gladly accept funding, but not from those with the blood, sweat and tears of centuries of slavery, colonialism and apartheid on their hands.

5. Hartley’s attempt at assassinating my character is pathetic but nonetheless, defamatory, I have always been an open book politically. I did leave the ANC to form COPE. This was to oppose state capture, long before Hartley reported on this. When the tide turned, I returned to the organisations I joined as a youth, the ANC and the SACP. If Hartley chooses to think that that is unprincipled, then I can only conclude that he has very little understanding of politics.

6. Similarly, my role at Armscor and in the defence industry is not a secret, and I am proud of it. I want South Africa to have a strong, effective SANDF. I want jobs for our country and its workers. Hartley seems to think that because he does not actually play a role in the arms industry or in the military, that his hands are “clean”. This is self-serving nonsense. He is openly supporting the biggest military force on planet earth, the USA, which has killed more people and invaded and bombed more countries since the end of the Second World War since any other military on the planet. His boss, Mills, directly worked for the US led occupation of Afghanistan. It cannot be denied that Mills has blood on his hands.

Contrary to Hartley’s insinuations, Armscor, following government policy, is non-aligned on the war being fought in Ukraine. Armscor has not sold weapons to either side. Would Hartley and co rather have South Africa without a SANDF, no defence industry, and having us rely on the USA for our protection?

7. As for the Russian ship in Simonstown, I have difficulty understanding what his issue is. The Daily Maverick has gone on and on about this vessel, as if they know that it was off-loading or loading weapons. I don’t know if that is the case as I am a non-executive chair of the board of Armscor. What I do know is that Simonstown is a dockyard that deals with the repair and maintenance of SA Navy vessels. Do they buy Russian parts and equipment? I don’t know. But if they did, what would be the crime? We don’t have sanctions against Russia.

8. Hartley claims that the documents used in Palm’s piece were obtained illegally. We don’t know how they were obtained. They weren’t given directly to us. We saw them when they were widely circulated on WhatsApp. The Daily Maverick runs reports based on leaked documents all the time, that’s how whistle-blowers work. We don’t know who leaked the documents that we used – or a third document that we haven’t used. What we do know is that they are in the public interest, and that neither the Brenthurst Foundation or the Daily Maverick has denied that they are genuine.

Hartley insinuates that a “state agency” is involved in Palm’s piece but does not say what agency, or how or why it was involved. Palm wrote a piece based on widely circulated documents as is his right as a citizen of a democracy. If Hartley wants to make a concrete allegation he must say so and stand by it.

The fact of the matter is that Hartley works for a ‘foundation’ funded by white capital made under apartheid and deeply embedded in the US/UK military intelligence complex, a foundation that relentlessly propagandises for the West. It is time for independent actors, such as Sanef and media academics at our universities, to weigh in on the brazen capture of the Daily Maverick by the West.

Phillip Dexter is the co-founder of the Pan-African Institute for Socialism