ANC MPs’ phone numbers travel on Twitter, but not Winnie’s

Twitter users, particularly Tumi Sole, have been hard at work over the past few days publishing the names and phone numbers of individual ANC MPs to encourage the public to lobby these people directly to vote against President Jacob Zuma.

Although Sole (CountryDutyZA) published the name of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, he refrained from publicising her cellphone number, possibly out of respect or because no one is expecting her to be in parliament today anyway.

They showed no such restraint when it came to known Zuma backers such as Cooperative Governance Minister Des van Rooyen and Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini.

Even Baleka Mbete’s number was published.

The EFF’s secretary-general, Godrich Gardee, has been retweeting all these messages and encouraging South Africans to reach out to MPs ahead of today’s critical vote.

According to the People’s Assembly website, Madikizela-Mandela did not attend parliament at all last year. There is, however, a number available on the website if you’d like to give her a try.

However, it’s unlikely any MPs will be taking any calls right now. The Citizen did not attempt to verify whether the published numbers are operational.

Madikizela-Mandela said in 2010 that she was too busy with her work outside parliament to debate issues as an MP. There was a call for her to lose her seat, because if any MP is absent from parliament without the permission of the ANC chief whip, she should lose her seat, according to the constitution.

No one realistically expected that could ever happen to Madikizela-Mandela though.