Excerpt: For years, Liberty Fighters Network has carried the heavy load of South Africa’s most critical legal battles — often alone, often unseen. Our supporters raise urgent concerns, and we answer every one of them, yet the moment we take action, attention shifts elsewhere while the burden remains on our shoulders. The call to challenge the proposed Digital ID rollout is clear, but so is the pattern: more work, less support, and almost no public push to make our efforts visible. We fight for justice daily, but we cannot be the only ones carrying the weight. Public interest can only change the nation when the public takes interest.
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Over the years, Liberty Fighters Network has taken on some of the most difficult, politically sensitive, and nationally important legal battles in South Africa. Not because it is easy, not because it is popular, and certainly not because we are paid to do so — but because someone has to stand in the gap when ordinary people are left unprotected.
Yet, as I sit with the results of our recent Telegram survey — where 88% of participants voted that we must challenge the proposed Digital ID rollout — I cannot help but feel an uncomfortable reality growing louder.
Yes, the numbers say we must act.
Yes, the legal grounds are serious.
And yes, the rollout of a Digital ID infrastructure has profound constitutional implications.
But numbers and enthusiasm alone do not sustain a constitutional battle.
LFN’s history shows a clear pattern:
People raise concerns.
LFN takes action.
And then — almost as quickly — attention shifts to the next crisis, the next outrage, the next social-media headline.
Meanwhile, the earlier battles remain on our shoulders, quietly consuming countless hours, personal resources, and emotional energy.
Support often begins with passion, but it rarely ends with participation.
The Reality We Don’t Speak About Often Enough
Every legal challenge we undertake has a cost — not just financial, but human.
Time, research, drafting, consultations, court filing fees, printing, travel, exhaustion, and personal sacrifice that most will never see.
And while the public cries out for someone to act, the moment we do, those same voices often go silent, drifting back to new issues or to the influencers who simply comment on events, while LFN actually acts on them.
We can only measure future behaviour by past behaviour — and that is what concerns me most.
The Digital ID challenge will be enormous.
It will require constitutional argument, privacy analysis, POPIA interpretation, administrative-law review of the decision-making process, and a deep dive into the international frameworks influencing our domestic policies.
It will take years of intensive work.
But will we once again walk this road alone?
Will supporters forget this battle, just as many have forgotten the ones we are already fighting?
Will they expect us to carry yet another burden without the basic support needed to keep the momentum alive?
And most importantly — will there be anyone helping ensure the public even knows we are fighting these battles?
The Painful Contrast: Who Gets the Attention?
What troubles me deeply is the growing trend in our community:
People follow mainstream social-media influencers who simply repeat news headlines.
Those influencers enjoy large audiences, regular engagement, and massive financial support.
Meanwhile, LFN — which creates the very legal challenges that could change the country — remains ignored, blacked out, and sidelined by both the media and the very public we serve.
I see supporters sharing every influencer’s post within minutes…
But when LFN publishes original legal work, court documents, or major developments?
Silence.
I see followers tagging influencers daily…
But tagging LFN?
Promoting our cases?
Encouraging influencers to cover the work we are actually doing?
Almost never.
This is not a complaint — it is a reality check.
If people truly want LFN to continue fighting battles on their behalf, then they must also be willing to help ensure that the work becomes visible.
Awareness is oxygen in public interest litigation.
When our work is kept in the shadows, the very institutions we challenge are empowered by that silence.
LFN Cannot Be Both the Army and the Cheerleaders
We cannot fight in court, fund the cases, carry the workload, resist the political pressure, and simultaneously be expected to market ourselves while the very people who asked us to act scroll past our updates.
That is not sustainable.
If the Digital ID challenge is going to happen — and the 88% vote shows that our supporters want it — then we need more than a poll result.
We need visibility.
We need commitment.
We need supporters who not only ask for action, but stand behind that action.
Because the truth is simple:
Our work keeps increasing.
Our time keeps decreasing.
And our resources are thinner than ever.
If You Want LFN to Fight This Battle, Then Stand With Us
If you believe the Digital ID rollout must be challenged, then we need supporters to do more than vote in a poll:
- Share our articles and court updates.
- Tag influencers and ask them to cover our work.
- Tell your communities what LFN is doing.
- Support our efforts in whichever way you can — including practically and visibly.
We will continue fighting — that is who we are.
But we cannot keep carrying the weight of national battles while the very public we serve forgets what has already been done, and what still lies ahead.
The Digital ID issue is serious.
But so is the silence surrounding all the work LFN is already doing — quietly, tirelessly, and often alone.
If our supporters truly want us to take this step, then this time, the support must walk with the request.
Public interest work only changes a nation when the public takes interest.
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