Disinformation the lifeblood of politics

Disinformation campaigns are obviously popular in politics. We have seen the current Chairperson of ANCYL in Limpopo associated with an 'email' that distances himself with the position of the League to support Cassell Mathale for the Provincial Chairmanship of the Province. And the case as read in the ANC Statement below is normal discourse in this work.

Lusaka, Zambia - 27th June, 1989
The malicious report carried in the British Intelligence Digest for June, to the effect that it has evidence of a plot to assassinate Comrade Nelson Mandela being hatched in the ANC, sets an all-time low for the abysmal ethical standards practised by that journal.
The ANC unequivocally states that there is not, and there cannot be, any such conspiracy to assassinate a single one of our political leaders, least of all Comrade Nelson Mandela, organised in the ranks of the ANC.
We defy the editors and owners of the British Intelligence Digest to produce the evidence they claim to possess. We challenge them to stop skulking behind the cover of 'informed sources' and other anonymous 'informants' and present before the court of international opinion the sources they claim advised them of these vicious lies.
However, we do not lightly dismiss the libels published by this scandal sheet. They are part of a pattern of psychological preparation of South African and international opinion for some act of foul play being plotted by enemies of the oppressed people of our country. Past experience warns that these will seek to shift the blame for the crimes onto the guiltless. The cowardly murder of Comrade Dulcie September in 1988 is a case in point.
It has become the practice of sensation-seeking journalists and all manner of mischief-makers to speculate about tensions and divisions within the leading organs of the ANC. True to this pattern the British Intelligence Digest and Africa Analysis make extravagant claims of differences between alleged nationalist and communist factions in the ANC.
Our people and the international community should, in the light of these groundless assertions, exercise maximum vigilance to safeguard and protect the lives of Comrade Mandela and other ANC leaders. The provocations that today emanate from these sources can serve but one purpose - to sow confusion amongst our supporters and to provide a ready-made alibi for the racist death squads that have recently subjected the ANC to a systematic campaign of assassinations and attacks against our personnel.
We admonish the editors and owners of these journals to consider the consequences of the libels they see fit to print. We reserve the right to call them to account before competent authorities.
AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS