Haffajee drops bomb on Van Onselen’s ‘partnership’ with DA policy head

A twar between Daily Maverick’s Ferial Haffajee and former Democratic Alliance (DA) in Institute of Race Relations (IRR) affiliate Gareth van Onselen has left spectators with more questions than answers after Haffajee dropped a bomb.

The twar began earlier this week when Van Onselen took exception to a report by Haffajee published in the Daily Maverick titled ‘DA support in freefall, two new surveys show’.

The report cites two surveys, one by Ipsos and the other by Citizen Surveys, and states that they show that support for the DA is in freefall as they lose both white and black supporters.

The report also gave interim DA leader John Steenshuisen a chance to account for this to which he responded: “Internal polling shows our support at the same level. This notion that our support is tanking is not true.”

An irate Van Onselen fired off a Twitter thread ripping the report to shreds.

He labelled the article “poor reporting” and accused Haffajee of pretending as though the contents of the report were more recent than they were.

1/ This such poor reporting. The Ipsos poll was in the field between September and November 2019! Three months ago. How can a professional reporter not mention that? And pretend this was the situation yesterday. It’s just disgraceful. https://t.co/RqhlFyY7KR

— Gareth van Onselen (@GvanOnselen) February 24, 2020

Van Onselen later continued, this time roping Sunday Times into the mix.

So, the Sunday Times refuses to publish the DA’s right of reply to a factually incorrect, ad hominem smear, and now the Daily Maverick is censoring out criticism of its journalists, after a misleading, factually inaccurate report. This is starting to get disturbing. pic.twitter.com/8d19DK06Kt

— Gareth van Onselen (@GvanOnselen) February 25, 2020

He then published another 14-tweet-long Twitter thread that he titled ‘Thread on the Daily Maverick’s censoring of the DA’s reply to its sensational report on the latest available polling’.

1/ Thread on the Daily Maverick’s censoring of the DA’s reply to its sensational report on the latest available polling. Below (in bold) are the sections of the DA’s reply the DM censored. pic.twitter.com/w7XGAmtmpA

— Gareth van Onselen (@GvanOnselen) February 25, 2020

Amid all of Van Onselen’s tweets, Haffajee simply responded: “Thank you for the chat and the link to poll coverage, @GvanOnselen. I know you don’t agree, but it’s important to note: 1. You run your own polling company, 2. Your partner is head of policy of the DA, 3. You have a history of factional engagement on matters in that party.”

While many tried to goad the pair into publicly debating each other, others commented on Haffajee’s labelling of the DA policy head as Van Onselen’s partner.

Gwen Ngwenya, who previously worked at the IRR with Van Onselen returned to the DA as policy head in November.

Haha I think this is must be answered also @GvanOnselen 😅😅

— K.M 🇿🇦 (@kblackmafiri) February 25, 2020

Ferial you perhaps need to clear up your point number 2.
It might create some unnecessary gossip.
I read it to say that The Head of Policy in the DA is a Gareth's BUSINESS partner, not his romantic partner. That's what you mean as well right?

— Leonard Masilela, Esquire. (@LeonardMasilela) February 26, 2020

I thought Gwen resigned from her Head of Policy position at the beginning of 2019. Has she been reappointed to that position?

— Mzi Mthethwa🇿🇦 (@mzinyambose) February 25, 2020

Wait…Partner in business or pleasure? 🤔😲

— VantaBlaq ☭☥ (@AfrikanistBantu) February 25, 2020

This clears up a lot about this man involvement with @Our_DA internal matters.

— LAWRENCE (@LAWRENC25055815) February 25, 2020

Number 2 makes alot of sense now pic.twitter.com/JSIXBpRjSt

— Luka Gama🇿🇦 (@lukagoodson) February 27, 2020

Guys kanti why are you not sharing files with me. You know I love mess.

UGareth ujola no Gwen ? pic.twitter.com/bhRGYrACSk

— Africa Research Desk (@MightiJamie) February 26, 2020

The DA/ IRR revolving door is one of the most interesting aspects of SA politics.

— Africa Research Desk (@MightiJamie) February 26, 2020

https://twitter.com/Vywer/status/1232918212360245248?s=20

Neither Haffajee nor Van Onselen responded to queries from Twitter about the nature of his partnership with the DA policy head.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.