Mystery of the latest fake online campaign — in favour of police minister Senzo Mchunu

Daily Maverick

7 hours ago

South African social media is awash with fake accounts being used to hype up politicians. The latest beneficiary – Police Minister Senzo Mchunu.
If you logged on to X at any point over the past few months, you may have seen something slightly unexpected: a torrent of tweets in support of Police Minister Senzo Mchunu.
'Minister Mchunu's commitment to transparently sharing crime stats builds trust! It's a breath of air for informed decision making and fighting crime,' read one such tweet – posted, with identical wording, by at least five different accounts.
Since March this year, X has been flooded with pro-Mchunu content that bears all the hallmarks of an inauthentic campaign.
In April 2025, Daily Maverick detailed how platforms like X were increasingly being used for political manipulation. We identified at least five separate campaigns at that point, each apparently orchestrated by paid 'nano-influencers' – with small followings – and fake accounts to promote specific politicians.
During April alone, ActionSA received an online boost for its position on the VAT-hike Budget. Deputy President Paul Mashatile was the subject of glowing posts, seemingly designed to hype him up for a presidential run. Three other ANC politicians – Limpopo provincial secretary Reuben Madadzhe, Limpopo MEC Tony Rachoene, and ANC Youth League leader Collen Malatji – also benefited from coordinated praise.
Now, the police minister's name can be added to that list – but seemingly without his knowledge.
Digital researchers analyse campaign
Analysis by data consultancy Murmur Intelligence researchers Kyle Findlay and Aldu Cornelissen provides a window into how this campaign unfolded.
'Starting in March 2025, a network of seemingly inauthentically coordinated nano influencers has promoted Mchunu and SAPS, with their activity levels consistently ramping up to reach a peak in the second half of April 2025,' Murmur found.
'This network generated 38% of all posts about Mchunu despite only representing about 10% of the users discussing him.'
The signs of fakery are hard to miss. Many of the accounts at the forefront of the pro-Mchunu drive were created in a burst during February and March, just before the campaign began.
This pattern, according to Murmur, is a 'classic indicator of a pre-planned, inauthentic campaign'.
The content itself gives the game away: some posts include obvious AI-generated mistakes, like the appearance of the phrase 'Characters: 42', where a prompt was never meant to appear.
Other accounts tweeting in support of Mchunu betray their implausibility through contradictory or nonsensical biographical details.
@Noni_Thunzi, for instance, who joined X in March 2025, describes herself as an 'Iranian American woman.' @Fezile_thunzi, meanwhile, sports a Chinese-language bio about blockchain technology, and joined in February.
Mchunu under fire in recent months
It's not hard to guess what might have triggered the campaign. Mchunu has faced some harsh criticism in recent months.
In particular, the murder of Olerato Mongale placed the SAPS under intense scrutiny, as did the subsequent manhunt for her murderer, which saw the main suspect killed in a showdown with police in KwaZulu-Natal.
The fact that he was gunned down in this manner actually seemed to win widespread support for KZN police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi – and with reports of tension between Mchunu and Mkhwanazi, it was Mchunu who appeared to be the loser in the court of public opinion.
In addition, the ever-percolating resentment towards undocumented foreign nationals, and SAPS' perceived reluctance to act against them, has also raised the heat on Mchunu this year.
All these issues provided fertile ground for a reputational clean-up effort – of the kind that was subsequently very clumsily launched on X.
But when Daily Maverick approached Mchunu for comment on these developments, the minister's reaction was somewhat surprising.
Unlike most politicians, who have learnt to ignore media queries about social media manipulation – or, for that matter, most other issues – Mchunu phoned this reporter directly to ask for details. On the call, Mchunu sounded genuinely baffled by the notion of an orchestrated online campaign in his favour, and gave a credible performance of someone who had no knowledge of such tactics.
If Mchunu isn't behind the campaign – and there is no evidence to suggest he is – the most likely candidate would seem to be someone within the ANC. Yet when approached for comment twice on the issue of the party using social media in this manner by Daily Maverick, ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu has failed to respond to questions.
ANC likely to be behind fake campaign
This silence does little to dispel the suspicion that the ANC, or at least some elements within it, may have authorised or facilitated the campaign – quite plausibly without Mchunu's cooperation, and, as Murmur notes, potentially to his detriment given the clumsy nature of the work.
'This case serves as a stark reminder of the reputational damage that can be inflicted by such efforts, often without the subject's knowledge or consent,' Murmur said.
'It underscores the critical importance for any public figure or organisation to be aware of the digital activities being conducted in their name and to carefully vet any agency or individuals hired for digital outreach. When a campaign is executed with such little proficiency, it doesn't just fail to persuade; it actively undermines the credibility of the person or cause it was meant to support.'
The bigger picture is clear: South Africa is heading into an electoral season where digital manipulation will be more common and more brazen than ever before. The rise of nano influencers and fake accounts means that almost any political figure could become the focus of a synthetic online campaign.
As Daily Maverick has warned before, political nano-influencer campaigns – particularly when considered alongside the expanding issue of deepfakes and hyper-realistic AI videos – represent a growing threat to the health of South Africa's democracy. They poison public discourse, sow confusion and blur the line between genuine political support and manufactured hype. And in countries like Romania, this kind of digital manipulation has had real-world impacts on election results. DM