South Africa is under attack by Western countries led by the US due to its BRICS membership and non-aligned geopolitical policy. This isn’t surprising, given the West’s frustration with the country’s refusal to support its war against Russia using Ukraine. But what’s notable in this endeavor is the West’s resorting to a familiar imperial tactic of fronting black-faced diplomatic and media vassals to validate and amplify their anti-South African talking points on behalf of the Washington bourgeoisie. It is in this spirit that the US House of Representatives on Thursday invited one, Redi Thlabi, to slavishly demonize not only South Africa, her country of birth but also other African states and people.
Redi Thlabi before the US House of Representatives
In the full glare of cameras, Redi’s slavish role was immediately obvious when, instead of self-respectfully frowning at the mispronunciation of her name by Rep. James, the Chairman, she sheepishly giggled and thanked him. From there onwards, Redi was either dramatically nodding even to the most inconsequential phrases of her script, mispronouncing Madagascar as ‘Madagal,’ or berating Sudan and the Central African Republic as ‘weaker states’ with flimsy democracies, summing up a treacherous evening when, once again, a black woman had been weaponized not only against her own country but against continental Africa.
Its worth noting that despite years in the media as a radio presenter and television anchor, and despite being credited with numerous publications, Redi Thlabi, the so-called author and media personality could only manage to read her presentation verbatim from a cell phone. Was she instrumentalized to deliver a message hastily ghostwritten for her? That can be the only conclusion if one examines both the message she presented and her delivery. The message was distinctly aimed at condemning the Russia-South African relationship and could have been mistaken for a campaign pitch of an American politician. Indeed, Redi’s disingenuous emotion, awkward gestures, and fidgeting with her handset immediately made it evident that this walkie-talkie puppet was merely transmitting someone else’s talking points in real time.
When, during the questioning, Mr. Jackson, one of the members, correctly pointed out the good and unique historical relationship between Russia and South Africa, and asked why Redi and others were singling out South Africa to blame over a position on the Russia-Ukraine conflict that was no different from that of other US allies like India and Saudi Arabia, Redi, caught off guard with an impromptu question her handlers clearly hadn’t prepped her on, instinctively grabbed her phone, seemingly expecting a feed-in of the answer from her remote source.
The awkward moment was saved by her cucumber-shaped headed colleague, Mr. Chris Maroleng whose clueless answer was the only thing less embarrassing than the sight of a pale-bleached Redi fidgeting with her phone.
Redi Thlabi’s stage-managed Rise as an Author
But how did Redi Thlabi plummet to these depths of treachery? How did she end up before the US House of Representatives, masquerading as the spokesperson for the noble people of South Africa, all the while betraying them with every word? Was she paid to spew these falsehoods against her homeland, her continent, and her country’s steadfast ally, Russia? Was she promised a job in an American media corporation? What led to her treachery and blatant blackmail of her own country and other countries in Africa? One cannot arrive at the answer to this question without delving into the sordid history of such blacks whom the West turns against their own people by stage managing their rise to fame, prior to eventual instrumentalization for imperial interests.
It is a familiar script, as old as colonialism itself, where blacks, hungry for recognition and wealth, are coopted to betray their own for the promise of a comfortable life in the West, for the trappings of success and fame. As the script has it, the Whites identify a young person from an African country, mentor them in a chosen area of public discourse such as Media Commentary, Public Speaking, Journalism, or Human rights, then manipulate the competition in that chosen field to promote that young person as exceptional, eventually providing them with media coverage and summit attendances to enhance their popularity and credibility. Meanwhile, they take them on foreign trips to Western capitals, secure academic fellowships for them through manipulation in Western institutions, and once they have gained a certain profile, they assign handlers and send them back to Africa armed with ‘talking points,’
Redi Thlabi’s case, like many other promising young Africans, is no different. She was mentored in the media industry starting in her mid-20s, and given platforms to raise her profile, including a stint at BBC Radio. Eventually, as they prepared to weaponize her, some white man ghostwrote her first major publications around 2013, which despite their average literary rating, were promoted internationally to catapult her into the media spotlight as an author.
With her credibility as an author established, the time came to weaponize her in 2017 when she became part of a Western syndicate to character assassinate Jacob Zuma, former South African president as a rapist. In that endeavor, Redi’s first major act as a conduit of her Western patrons was to accept authorship of a ghost-written book about Zuma’s accuser to paint Zuma as a rapist. Zuma of course had been acquitted of that allegation, but that didn’t matter to Redi. Her blackmail paid off, earning her a visa to relocate to the US two years later, where, in order to sustain the luxurious life she is now accustomed to, she is having to continue with her puppet duties, including another attempt to complete her obliteration of Zuma’s reputation with a film in 2019 about the same sex scandal.
The White Husband Syndrome
A crucial phase in the culmination of the neocolonial script for manipulating African women often involves assigning them old white men as husbands. We remember last month warning a certain Namatai Kwekweza, a promising young Zimbabwean woman who, after several donor-sponsored trips to Western capitals, returned parroting Western talking points. We warned that she was being manipulated either knowingly or unknowingly down the same path and that she would end up with a white husband, forever condemned by conjugal subjugation, into a lifetime of Western puppetry.
Source: African Interest
