AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel says his organisation has filed an Access to Information Act application to the department of international relations, as well as the State Security Agency “to provide us with the names of those academics, journalists and commentators that are being paid by them”.
Kriel claims journalists are being paid to discredit AfriForum and Solidarity.
According to TimesLIVE, however, the video allegations have prompted calls on AfriForum to name the journalists it believes are trying to smear it.
In the video, Kriel says: “AfriForum has received reliable information from a prominent former journalist that at least two South African journalists are being paid by the State Security Agency as well as the department of international relations to discredit AfriForum and the Solidarity Movement.”
He adds: “AfriForum has now officially applied in terms of the Access to Information Act to the department of international relations, as well as the State Security Agency, to provide us with the names of those academics, journalists and commentators that are being paid by them.”
Among the responses on X, user Nic Andersen is quoted by TimesLIVE as saying: “It is very simple if this is true. Name names. Tell us who? Expose whoever it is? But if no names are provided, it just paints a narrative against all journalists in SA. And then one has to ask why?”
Kriel is quoted as saying that the allegations (about paid agents seeking to discredit the organisation) “are in line with AfriForum’s experience since February this year, when an orchestrated campaign started to try and discredit AfriForum with lies. Numerous media houses have now already had to apologise to AfriForum for publishing these lies about us.”
Both AfriForum and Solidarity have attracted critical attention over their lobbying efforts in the United States in relation to ANC-backed legislation such as the Expropriation Act and the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act, and other government policies.