Rob Hersov: Puppeteer or Puppet? [Part 1]
A few months ago the director of a civil society organisation that has been heavily involved in election-related campaigns, policy and litigation asked on social media, ‘Why do people think Rob Hersov has money?’. He was keen to disparage the idea – not for the first time – that Hersov is rich and, seemingly, undermine any suggestion that Hersov has influence over political matters. Interestingly, that civil society organisation has studiously avoided declaring its funding sources for two years – but I will write about Rivonia Circle separately.
So who is Rob Hersov? An objective assessment of evidence from the last few years suggests that he is the highest profile individual that has loudly, and repeatedly, indicated their intention to influence and manipulate the 2024 election results. Prior to that, Hersov reportedly worked for the right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Various pieces of evidence link him to the origins of the xenophobic ‘Operation Dudula’ via a man who goes by the name of Nhlanhla Lux. But when the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) produced a documentary on Operation Dudula, they carefully left out Hersov’s role. That kind of clearly deliberate omission by one of the largest media organisations in the world should ring alarm bells.
Given Hersov’s politics he does not seem like someone who would naturally have many, if any, black friends. Yet since recently returning to South Africa he has apparently established ‘friendships’ with other young black South Africans (besides Nhlanhla Lux) with disproportionate influence on public debate, such as the YouTuber ‘Penuel the Black Pen’. Perhaps even more notable for someone who regularly refers to anti-apartheid politicians as criminals, is that he struck up a relationship with former convict Gayton McKenzie, now leader of the Patriotic Alliance. Hersov calls McKenzie a ‘good friend’ and endorsed him as a future president despite having not only been convicted of serious crimes but also having benefited from prison corruption (securing his release by exposing it). It is certainly a remarkable coincidence that Hersov not only suddenly discovered the charms of friendships across racial lines, about 25 years after the end of apartheid, but also just happened to establish a web of such friendships all oriented towards influencing an election.
In South Africa, Hersov has circulated his propaganda through social media and largely been given platforms by fringe or rightwing media outlets, but mainstream media houses have carefully avoided close analysis of his activities and largely avoided criticism of him. If one tracks his influence closely enough, one can see how he has nevertheless gotten mainstream media to give platforms to his unqualified associates. A recent example is Solly Moeng, who after featuring Hersov on his YouTube channel was interviewed as an expert on foreign policy by Newzroom Afrika despite not having any experience or qualifications in that area. Moeng was then made ‘international relations expert’ for the rightwing opposition party ActionSA and promptly started producing the kind of content similar to Hersov’s utterances. Such examples all point in the direction of Hersov being a puppeteer, but does it really make sense that he would be acting on his own? What local interests might Hersov be linked to through his family? What foreign interests might he have come to the attention of while working with Murdoch?
It is intriguing that Hersov has been overseas for many years and appears to have returned to South Africa with the main purpose being to influence an election. Having been quite happy to serve in the military under apartheid, he now says he wants to ‘save South Africa from the ANC’ because it is corrupt. So who is Rob Hersov and what is he really up to? With his fingerprints and rhetoric all over the idea of the ‘Moonshot Pact’ of opposition parties and links to the head of the ANC’s election campaign, Kgalema Motlanthe, is he the most influential puppeteer in South Africa? Or is he a puppet himself? And if so, for who or what? Is Hersov the latest version of the infamous Bell Pottinger, which sought to destabilise South Africa through various forms of divisive propaganda?
To understand who Rob Hersov is, what his agenda might be and whether he is indeed wealthy, we need to go back to the past and the apartheid history of Basil Hersov – Rob’s father.