Purple Cow founder defends right to engage with alt-right

NICOLA MILTZ

Roman Cabanac is one of the ten founders of the recently registered ZACP, whose logo is a purple cow. The party’s members describe themselves as “positive disruptors”, and believe their innovative thinking could create solutions to many of South Africa’s problems.

Cabanac, a legal consultant and the co-host of a controversial podcast, Renegade Report, recently engaged with a motley crew of alternative right-wing thinkers, one of whom holds Nazi beliefs.

The online discussion on 11 April raised the ire of Johannesburg-based author and journalist, Nechama Brodie, who criticised the politician for allowing racist comments to be aired without even challenging or debating them.

She happened to tune in to the live “online hangout” at the precise point when Cabanac asked what she claimed was a leading question of one of the participants, which elicited a racist, anti-Semitic remark, according to Brodie.

The chat took place on The Kaaplander’s YouTube channel. Kaaplander has various pictures of the old South African flag with soldiers bearing arms and skulls on his status, and says #StopWhiteGenocide. Participants on the chat included Kaaplander and Willempet (Willem Petzer), a right wing Afrikaner who had a recent run in with well-known comedian and journalist Daniel Friedman, alias Deep Fried Man, which turned ugly and caused an anti-Semitic Twitter explosion. Then there was BasedNogals, a Cape Town coloured man whose real name is unknown, but who describes himself as a Christian anti-Zionist; and another person going by the name of Ash, who describes himself as a Hindu Nationalist fascist, and who is anti-gay.

The conversation touched on various topics including the genetics of black and white people; affirmative action; the shooter in Christchurch, New Zealand; the global right-wing movement; and refugees.

Brodie entered the stream after someone alerted her to listen to the controversial conversation.

She heard Cabanac and Nogals engage in a discussion about whether certain “elites” referred to by Nogals as a “tribe” were behind engineering immigration into Europe.

Brodie then criticised Cabanac for not challenging Nogals and calling him out as anti-Semitic.

Cabanac told the SA Jewish Report he was invited to participate in a debate, “to discuss each other’s views on various topics”.

“I don’t sympathise with their views at all, which is why I agreed to debate them. The point of the debate is to challenge and criticise views.”

He said he had nothing in common with them, and said none of the participants would be potential voters for the ZACP.

“Kaaplander actually made a very disparaging video about the ZACP after the debate. Nogals changed his Twitter profile to the Purple Cow [our logo] and made several disparaging tweets about the party. Their antagonism to the ZACP and the ideas of the ZACP increased after the livestream, indicating that they fundamentally disagree with the classically liberal ideas of the party.”

He said he was not aware that Nogals had previously shared anti-Semitic tweets.

On 18 January, Nogals tweeted, “I would not kill baby Hitler. In fact I’d rather teach the young lad that six million wasn’t enough.” He openly admits his political views are “hard core right wing”.

Brodie has done research on the emergence of white right supremacism, and has been vocal following the recent attack on Muslim worshippers in Christchurch.

She did extensive research into the “false claims” six years ago of a so-called white right genocide in South Africa, and says there is a “common language emerging”.

“These false claims of a white genocide have been cited by multiple mass shooters in multiple locations as a justification and motivation for their acts of retribution and vengeance. This is why they are doing it, because [they believe] white people are under some terrible threat.”

She said South Africa was an important part of the global narrative, as apartheid South Africa was the white supremacist ideal.

“It is not ok to go online and say that six million was not enough, and yet this is an environment in which people feel that it is ok.”

She called out politicians in the public eye for not standing up to it.

Said Cabanac, “I always talk to people who dislike my views. My podcast, Renegade Report, is based on that very premise. We host people we don’t agree with. I don’t shout or cause a scene when someone says something objectively reprehensible, I criticise their views, and I offer alternative views, premised on individual rights and the universal application thereof. I’m a free speech absolutist, and the Renegade Report and ZACP agree with that.”

However, Brodie said, “Words matter. As Jews, we know words have power. I’m frustrated by people who claim to be activists for free speech but at the same time seem dismissive of the terrible and tremendous power of speech.

“If a Democratic Alliance member was hanging out with white supremacists online, that politician would be under extreme scrutiny,” she said.

There has been a rise in white right-wing anti-Semitism, which experts agree is of concern.

David Saks, the associate director of South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) said.

 “Inciting racial hatred is bad enough, but an even greater danger is the potential it has to lead to acts of lethal violence. Sooner or later, as happened in Pittsburgh last year and more recently in Christchurch, certain people will no longer be content to simply seethe on the side-lines but will decide to do something about it.”