Angie Motshekga fake tweets get laughs

The Education Department has distanced itself from a twitter account that parodies minister Angie Motshekga. File picture: Thobile Mathonsi

The Education Department has distanced itself from a twitter account that parodies minister Angie Motshekga. File picture: Thobile Mathonsi

Published Jan 17, 2013

Share

Durban - ‘Parents, make sure your children are on time tomorrow for the first day of school! Those mud schools aren’t going to fill themselves!”

This Twitter message and others issued this week by “@AngieMotshekga”, claiming to be from the Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga, contained bogus news items, her department said on Wednesday.

Basic Education spokesman Panyaza Lesufi said the minister wished to distance herself from the Twitter account.

 

“Bogus news items and comments were posted on the fake account, giving the impression that the minister was using the platform to communicate with South Africans,” he said.

“Minister Motshekga does not have a personal Twitter account and she communicates through the official DBE (Department of Basic Education) Twitter account whose handle is @DBE_SA.

“We warn the public and those using social media to ignore the account as it does not represent the department, the minister or the government. The creator/s of this account are disrespectful and seek only to tarnish the good name of the minister. “That we will not allow,” Lesufi said.

The fake account was created on the eve of the first day of school for coastal regions.

But not too many were angered or bothered by the tweets of the fake Motshekga, with many of the twitterati faithful finding it quite amusing.

The opening tweet read:

“Hello Tweeps, I’m now tweeting about education and stuff. It’s really important. #Education #Important”.

The fake Motshekga, who has accumulated more than 250 followers, has been tweeting with abandon in the past two days, with many a sarcastic tweet such as:

“@TelkomRSA My phone line is down and I can’t reach the Limpopo government. Oh well, no textbooks for them! #yourfault”, referring to the textbook scandal last year where pupils went for months without their textbooks.

One tweet spoke of a confession: “Once Oprah’s done with Lance can we get her down here? Got a few things to get off my chest too #textbooks #confession.”

 

The fake account appears to be operating in a “tripartite alliance” of satirists, working closely with the fake Telkom Twitter Account “@TelkomRSA” and the “@SABCtoo” account. - Daily News

Related Topics: