Maimane learns to count with help from ‘Woolies water’

Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane came up with his own entry into the #WooliesWaterChallenge on Thursday evening, which doubled up as a correction to a mistake he made while campaigning on Tuesday, which had social media mocking him over his maths skills.

Maimane was speaking while on the campaign trail alongside Gauteng premier candidate Solly Msimanga in Tembisa on Tuesday, where he caught the attention of many on social media when he boldly declared that “44 out of 10 South Africans don’t have a job”.

In a video response, Maimane repeats his mistake before a sip of “Woolies water” enables him to correct himself, explaining that he meant to say that 40% of our households “don’t have a single income coming into their house, they depend on grants, on remittances. Four out of ten adults in this country don’t work,” Maimane clarified.

Responses to the video seemed mainly positive, with South Africans praising the DA leader for what they called a good “comeback”.

Not everyone, however, was impressed with Maimane’s effort.

Retailer Woolworths has been trending this week after a group of young men filmed a hilarious skit about the powers allegedly contained in Woolworths’s water.

In the video, the four young men who go by the Twitter handles @bab_sinkila, @MabokoItumeleng, @MossBanele and @gomolemon_, can be seen on their way out of a Woolworths store speaking isiZulu and speaking English with a distinct and heavy isiZulu accent.

READ MORE: What happens when a white man takes the #WooliesWaterChallenge?

The young man filming the video proceeds to take a sip of the water and his friends follow suit, and their accents immediately change to those often stereotypically believed to belong to young black rugby players from suburban areas or schools.

The video immediately went viral and sparked the #WooliesWaterChallenge prompting South Africans from across the nation to participate with various products from the store.

(Compiled by Daniel Friedman. Background reporting by Gopolang Chawane and Kaunda Selisho)

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