#AskThePublicProtector: South Africans troll Busisiwe Mkhwebane on Twitter

Busisiwe Mkhwebane jacob zuma south africa twitter
President Jacob Zuma receives a courtesy call from the Public Protector, Adv Busisiwe Mkhwebane at his Mahlamba Ndlopfu residence, in Pretoria. It was their first meeting since her appointment. The President wished Adv Mkhwebane well and assured her of government's cooperation as she fulfills her responsibilities. 13/12/2016, Elmond Jiyane, GCIS

The South African government should know by now: Twitter does not take anything seriously. So when it created #AskThePublicProtector, it should have come as no surprise that no one was using it to ask Busisiwe Mkhwebane questions she would ever read aloud.

Mkhwebane has only been working as Public Protector since October last year, so she may not fully grasp the way South Africans deal with politics on Twitter.

The platform allows a certain level of anonymity — and the users hold the power. On Twitter, the public are able to throw comments they never would in person. They can post without fear of retaliation or without even the certainty their comment will be seen.

Busisiwe Mkhwebane replaced Thuli Madonsela as South Africa’s public protector in October 2016

They post with no holds barred — and the outcome is usually hilarious.

The government clearly weren’t paying attention to last year’s #AskMmusi endeavour, in which DA Leader Mmusi Maimane also tried to engage with the public over Twitter. Instead of serious questions about what the leader intends to do, Twitter hit him with taunts and jokes.

Whether it was her intention or not, Mkhwebane definitely found out what the public thought of her today.

Feature image: GovernmentZA/Elmond Jiyane/GCIS via Flickr (CC 2.0, resized)

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