The Cape Independent: a new independent news site

I’ve had a number of frustrated conversations with various members of the independence movement for the past year or two, mostly centred on the increasingly cold attitude conveyed toward the movement by mainstream actors and outlets.

While the news media was happy to cover what we were up to while we were a marginal movement that could be easily ridiculed, the recent support shown in the polls(58% in support of secession, 68% in support of a referendum, 79% of DA voters in support of a referendum) has changed the tone.

Now, almost no media outlet will cover stories coming from the independence groups. Perhaps it is now perceived as a real threat, enough so that it would disturb the delicate pro-establishment ecosystem, in which the Liberal opposition party is getting ever-cozier with the ruling ANC.

With the elections coming up next year, and the Referendum Party now set to contest them, this sort of coordinated and ideologically-driven freeze-out cannot stand. In order to contest on an even playing field, the RP will need media outlets that recognise their significance in the region. The Vryheids Front also deserves a fair bit more attention, especially considering how close the DA are to losing their majority and falling into a coalition arrangement.

Of course, as desperate as the DA are for power, I doubt they would be so daft as to hand over their home turf in the Cape to the ANC. That makes the liberal (RP) and conservative (VF) wings of the independence movement their main competition here.

I linked up with a couple of other members of the independence movement, who have backgrounds in web design and entrepreneurship to start this project, and while I am for now producing the vast majority of the content, I am confident we will grow into a serious and essential resource for pro-Cape news and analysis by the time the election rolls around.

The website can be found at https://www.capeindependent.com/, and there are also social media links here, though it will be a month before we have video content. For now, twitter/X and Facebook are the ones to go to.

If you have any news or opinion articles to contribute, please submit them here: https://www.capeindependent.com/contact

Here’s to next year.

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