Spoof Julius Malema ‘in talks’ with ANCYL to hand over Twitter account

Controversial ANC Youth League (ANCYL) leader Julius Malema may be negotiating to take over one of the larger fake Twitter accounts registered in his name with the view to making it his official account.

Memeburn has been informed that the owner of @julius_s_malema, whose identity remains a mystery, is “in talks” with ANCYL spokesperson Floyd Shivambu.

With more than 16 200 followers, @julius_s_malema is the largest of the 25 or so fake Malema Twitter accounts worth mentioning.

Malema hit worldwide headlines recently when ANCYL hilariously called for the world-famous microblogging platform to be shut down due to the proliferation of fake accounts tweeting in the youth league president’s name.

This prompted the Twitter community and celebrities to poke fun at Malema using the hashtag #jujufriday, which even became the second largest trending topic in the world at one point.

In an e-mail to Memeburn from the operator of the spoof account, the Twitter @julius_s_malema stated: “I have offered the account to the ANCYL (free of charge) and currently in talks with Floyd Shivhambu (sic) regarding them taking ownership and verifying it as the official Julius Malema twitter account.”

When Memeburn tried to confirm this, Shivambu responded, before hanging up: “I do not want to talk about Twitter.”

@julius_s_malema is one of the more balanced of the spoof accounts, delivering a mix of tongue-in-cheek parody and factual diary-style entries in the name of the ANCYL President.

But Malema is not the only politician on the receiving end of spoof Twitter account treatment. Leaders around the world have satirical, fake accounts tweeting in their name. The country’s president, Jacob Zuma, and ANCYL spokesperson Floyd Shivambu have also been ‘twitter-jacked’.

Meanwhile, it appears that the ANCYL has been slow to embrace Twitter. At the time of writing, the ANCYL Twitter account had only sent out eight tweets in total, and attracted 169 followers.

Memeburn’s advice: If you can’t beat ’em, then join ’em!