Lesufi puts his foot in it … again

Social media’s positive aspects – enabling people to stay in touch and informed – are being overtaken by its negative side.

Many are the denizens of Facebook and Twitter who, lacking sophistication or common sense, rush to post fake news, their outrage or ignorance. That comes with the territory. Social media is the candy floss of the masses.

We do not expect a senior government official to become involved in spreading potentially dangerous and inciting comments on social media. That’s what Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi did over the weekend, jumping in, boots and all, to cry racism when there was none.

He tweeted a photo of his TV screen which purported to show a South African fan waving the old “apartheid flag”. Lesufi’s TV clearly needs calibrating because the fan was in fact, wrapped in a new SA flag. Many people pointed that out immediately. Yet it took Lesufi seven hours before he reacted.

Even then, he didn’t remove the offending tweet immediately and made a lame apology, blaming technology and not the real culprit, his own, race-obsessed view of the world.

Sadly, this is not the first time Lesufi has put mouth in gear before engaging brain. And, we fear, it won’t be the last.

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