In the Great Divide—a country where “divide and rule” has been the dominant political strategy for more than 30 years—information has often been inaccurate, to say the least. We have lived through waves of disinformation and outright lies.
Take one example. A president once stood before the nation and promised to create a million jobs. Well, where are they? Jobs are created by business. What we have seen instead is a bloated public sector, padded out with positions for pals and cronies.
And so the pattern continues.
In a divided landscape, where hostility often simmers just beneath the surface, information is routinely distorted. Facts are left out. Context is ignored. And quite often, what is presented as fact is simply wrong.
Even newspapers—those long-standing custodians of truth—get it wrong. The difference, however, is that traditional media, at its best, corrects itself. It publishes a retraction, acknowledges the error, and moves on. That willingness to admit fault is not insignificant.
The New Frontier: AI and the Search for Truth
Artificial intelligence has rapidly become a primary source of information—not just in this country, but across the world. With that rise comes a new question: how much of what we are reading is actually true?
Accuracy in AI is no small matter. It has real-world consequences.
But it is too easy to blame the machine. AI does not operate in a vacuum. It is built, trained, and refined by people. The responsibility ultimately rests with those who design these systems to ensure that the information being delivered is as accurate as possible—whether it appears in text, images, video, or any other form of generated content.
In a divided society, the stakes are even higher. False information about immigrants, for example, spreads quickly and is often accepted without question, fuelling suspicion and hostility.
Yesterday evening, I spoke to an immigrant from Malawi. He was struck by the hostility he encountered here—something he says he had not experienced elsewhere on the continent. He described living in a township where he felt constantly scrutinised, questioned, and, at times, threatened. Eventually, he moved.
You can debate the causes. You can point to history. But the reality, as he experienced it, is difficult to dismiss.
He also spoke about his home country—how colonial rule ended there in the 1960s with far less bitterness. It was, in his words, an amicable parting.
I told him that Malawi is a remarkable place. Lake Malawi alone is something of a natural wonder—vast, clear, and quietly extraordinary. The Cape Town watercolourist Tony Grogan captured it beautifully in his book Between the Cape and Cairo.
But I digress.
The Global Crisis of Credibility
The problem of unreliable information is not uniquely local—it is global.
A recent study by Raptive, a digital media company representing thousands of independent creators, suggests that trust in information is eroding rapidly.
Their findings point to a shift in how people consume information:
• Only a small fraction of users now accept the first search result they see without question.
• Nearly half actively check multiple sources before trusting what they read.
• Content suspected to be generated by AI is often viewed with immediate scepticism—even when it is accurate.
In short, people no longer trust what they are told. And perhaps, given the environment, that is not entirely irrational.
Who Can We Trust?
It is not only AI that gets things wrong. People do too—frequently.
Verification begins closer to home than we might like to admit. It starts with everyday conversations, with colleagues, acquaintances, and even friends. Many speak with confidence but little accuracy. Facts are misremembered, exaggerated, or simply invented.
From there, the problem expands outward: social media, online platforms, and even established news outlets.
No single source is infallible.
How to Navigate the Divide
If you want the truth today, you cannot be passive. You have to work for it.
A few basic principles still hold:
1. Cross-reference
Never rely on a single source—whether it’s an AI response, a news article, or a social media post.
2. Go to the source
Whenever possible, consult primary material: official publications, original documents, and credible reference works.
3. Look for accountability
Trust those who admit when they are wrong. Silence in the face of error is rarely a good sign.
In the Great Divide, the truth is seldom handed to you neatly packaged. More often than not, it is buried beneath layers of opinion, distortion, and omission.
If you want it, you have to go looking for it.
