Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba.
Most well-versed Twitter users are familiar with the phrase “an RT is not an endorsement”, but it seems Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba missed this part of his introduction to social media.
RT is short for retweet, which is what one does when they wish to repost someone else’s tweet to their own profile. You have the option of retweeting a tweet without a caption or with a caption in the event that you wish to add additional information – such as a disclaimer or some context.
A screenshot of the mayor’s recent retweet of a Business Day cartoon depicting him carting a group of migrants (presumably undocumented) in a rubbish bin, accompanied by his likeness stating “…but I am cleaning up the rubbish” has now gotten the mayor in some hot water.
His contextless retweet has been understood as an endorsement of the message contained in the cartoon and a screenshot of the tweet has been shared a number of times.
At the time of writing the initial tweet was still on Mashaba’s Twitter page, still sans context.
The tweet immediately drew a number of negative reactions due to followers viewing it as his support of the negative view of migrants. Mashaba received responses such as “Do you understand what you’ve retweeted?”, “It seems u like that xenophobjc cartoon. Its distastefull!!” and “This is in bad taste.”
It took a day for Mashaba to respond to criticism surrounding the tweet and, even when he did respond, the focus of his response was in fact in line with anti-migrant sentiments.
Mashaba then tweeted about the latest development in the DA’s anti-migrant campaign stating that he had written to Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba “asking him, as a matter of urgency, to do an audit of undocumented people in Zandspruit”.
Mashaba asked Gigaba and his department to conduct an official inspection of a group of people who are untraceable by virtue of their undocumented status.
The mayor then dodged a barrage of questions from Twitter users about his view of migrants, deflecting attention to the creator of the cartoon instead.
He addressed the cartoon again today and said “this how this cartoonist & those who want to plunge our country into lawlessness view our immigrants”.
At no point has Mashaba explicitly stated that he does not agree with the views depicted in the cartoon, nor has he made it clear that the cartoon is not an accurate reflection of the DA’s stance on undocumented migrants.
It’s a move that may not bode well for the DA considering our nation’s xenophobic history, although tragically it may be a populist move meant to tap in to apparently permanently simmering xenophobia and the votes Mashaba may be hoping to attract with it.
Based on some responses to the tweet, Mashaba’s debatable endorsement of the cartoon has appealed to those who view it as a crackdown on all foreign nationals (not to be confused with undocumented migrants alone), but what about those who abhor this view of both undocumented migrants and foreign nationals based in South Africa?
Perhaps every political party, regardless of the size of their support bases, should introduce mandatory social media classes for their representatives and office bearers.
We cannot continue to let them make blunders on social media under the guise of not knowing any better.
Or maybe, far more sinisterly, he actually just means it.
For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.
Download our app and read this and other great stories on the move. Available for Android and iOS.