Mbalula’s Ukraine tweet: Sick attempt at a joke?

Accountability is one of the key tenets of democracy and Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula gave both the middle finger when he refused to explain his grossly insensitive tweet about Ukraine at a press briefing this week.

Mbalula’s controversial tweet

Was Mbalula in Ukraine?

If you’re not among the 2.7 million-odd followers the minister has on Twitter, or somehow missed the drama, he took to the popular social media platform on Saturday with a post that read: “Just landed in Ukraine.”

It raised a number of questions: Was the minister in Ukraine? If so, what was he doing there? If not, why did he say he was?

The answer to the first question is clearly no, as evidenced by the fact that less than 48 hours after posting, Mbalula was carrying out an oversight visit at the Akasia Driving Licence Testing Centre in Tshwane.

And that, effectively, voids the second question. The third question, however, remains and as a public official in a constitutional democracy, Mbalula has a duty to answer it.

Mbalua’s refusal to comment

And that is exactly what Newzroom Afrika journalist Ziyanda Ngcobo set about getting him to do at a press briefing he held after his inspection in Akasia on Monday.

He, however, flatly refused – abruptly cutting her off before she could even finish her question with a dismissive wave of his hand and a curt: “No, I’m not going to comment about that.”

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“But minister, you are a public official and chord with the minister, who shot back that he “didn’t trivialise anything”. He still, however, refused to explain himself.

The minister has since tried to defend his handling of Ngcobo’s questions.

After a clip of their exchange was posted on Twitter, he found himself on the receiving end of a significant backlash. He has since responded that he was in Akasia to address unrest around the driver’s licence backlog and not to talk about his tweet.

Add a dash of misogyny to the mix

He has labelled Ngcobo “uncoothed [sic]”, “rude” and “disruptive”. He has accused her of wanting “to be famous at my expense”.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine two weeks ago, thousands of Ukrainians have lost their lives and millions more have been displaced.

SA’s official response to this unprovoked act of war on the part of Russia – calling for diplomacy and dialogue and “refusing to pick a side” (in effect picking the side of the aggressor) as bombs continue to rain down on apartment buildings, hospitals, old-age homes and orphanages – has been abhorrent.

An attempt at a sick joke?

And as if this wasn’t bad enough, we now have a minister who appears to see the whole situation as something to joke about. In the absence of any other explanation, that is the only conclusion one can draw: his tweet on Saturday was a sick attempt at a joke.

But perhaps worse in the grander scheme of things is that we have a minister who appears to think he is above an explanation – above accountability – and who chooses to lash out at a journalist for doing her job rather than doing his.

Mbalula’s handling of this entire situation – from start to finish – has exposed him as an attention-hungry, insensitive, immature and unprofessional failure of a leader.