Gigaba disappears from social media and Twitter erupts

Malusi Gigaba, who resigned as home affairs minister, temporarily disabled his Twitter account soon after the Presidency announced this afternoon that the embattled 47-year-old politician had submitted a letter of resignation to President Cyril Ramaphosa, which he accepted.

Many on Twitter believed at the time that the account had not been disabled but deleted and, as a result, Twitter exploded.

Gigaba said in his letter of resignation that he was stepping aside for the sake of “our country and the movement”, and also to relieve Ramaphosa from “undue” pressure and allow him to focus on doing his job.

On Twitter, hashtag Malusi Gigaba was trending number one after news broke that Gigaba had resigned. Social media users started searching for his account and noticed that it did not exist anymore, assuming that he had deleted it. Rather, it seems the account was temporarily disabled and has since been restored, although Gigaba has still not tweeted. He has been unusually silent on the platform since September.

Gigaba last week apologised on Twitter after mocking fellow Member of Parliament, Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, by making a gesture with his pinkie finger to suggest that Ndlozi had a smaller manhood during a heated question and answer session when Ndlozi suggested that President Cyril Ramaphosa should buy feature phones with no cameras for his executive.

NOTE: An earlier version of this article inaccurately reported that Gigaba had deleted his account. Rather, it seems to have been temporarily disabled. 

It also included inaccuracies regarding legal matters relating to the Firebird Aviation matter, and regarding a Twitter spat with journalist Redi Tlhabi, which originated from a story on the African News Agency and have also been removed. 

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