JABULANI SIKHAKHANE

KwaZulu-Natal has seen an increase in the number of Zulu-language Facebook-based publishers, which have become a useful platform for the growing anti-immigrant movement in the province. They will likely be used in campaigns ahead of the forthcoming local government elections.

Some of the publishers have shown double-digit growth in followers since the beginning of this year, with one growing followers by 34% between mid-February and May.

Based on electoral experiences elsewhere in the world, the US in particular, the growth of these alternative sources of information could have serious implications for South African politics and the democratic project.

Political parties that focus solely on the mainstream media to convey their messages will likely miss an important constituency that relies on Facebook-based publishers for information.

KwaZulu-Natal is ripe for populist rhetoric. The 2026 voter participation survey conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) found only 6% of adults in the province had confidence in democracy, down from 54% in 2004. This compares with a national decline from 65% to 36%.

Trust in the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) in KwaZulu-Natal was the lowest of all provinces at 20% (versus the national average of 36%).

Worryingly, 88% said they were unhappy with economic conditions. The same number expected their economic circumstances to worsen over the next five years. Anti-immigrant sentiment is also most pronounced in KwaZulu-Natal, according to the HSRC’s latest social attitudes survey.

These publishers are filling an important information gap — essentially news deserts — in parts of the province that have been ignored by the mainstream media. That’s even though some don’t describe themselves as news and media publishers.

The growth in the number of these publishers and their followers points to a potentially important role in provincial politics, albeit a role whose impact has yet to be researched by scholars.

Their content is a mixture of video and text, with most focusing mostly on video content accompanied by introductory text. It covers cultural gatherings and issues, often anchored around celebrity chiefs, the Zulu king and other cultural influencers.

This includes those who have become the faces of the anti-immigrant movement, Ngizwe Mchunu and Nkosiikhona Ndabandaba, the latter known online as Phakelumthakathi.

They also cover the lives and performances of popular Maskandi musicians. Maskandi, a derivate of the Afrikaans word (musikant) for musician, is Zulu storytelling folk music.

Some of the content of these publishers reflects the intersection of culture and politics. Motor vehicle accidents, funerals of well-known people, and provincial and municipal government events often feature.

Based on the comments their posts on Facebook solicit, they have unusually high levels of reader engagement, with some posts generating 2,000 to 3,000 comments. A recent post on Nhlaka Production, an Ulundi-based outfit, on the burning of Mchunu’s homestead at Madundube, southwest of Durban, got more than 2,400 comments and was “liked” more than 20,000 times.

Nhlaka Production has 1.1-million Facebook followers, up 34% since mid-February this year. Over the same period mainstream media outlets in the province such as Ilanga (444,000), Isolezwe (1.7-million), Ukhozi FM (2.2-million) and Igagasi FM (1.3-million) have grown followers in single digits.

Some of the comments suggest these publishers are not necessarily “echo chambers” where people with similar beliefs or world viewpoints gather. There have been some comments that were critical of the anti-immigrant movement and its leaders.

Overall, the growth of these information sources must be studied carefully to understand their impact on electoral politics and, ultimately, on South Africa’s democracy.

• Sikhakhane, a former spokesperson for the finance minister, National Treasury and South African Reserve Bank, is editor of The Conversation Africa. He writes in his personal capacity.