Mboweni vs Malema: Retweeting old poll backfires on former finance minister

Former finance minister Tito Mboweni on Tuesday decided to retweet a poll, from June 2020, asking whether he or EFF leader Julius Malema would be a better president. It, however, backfired after a new poll was created which returned different results.

2020 poll

This poll was initially posted by South African analyst, writer and speaker Phumlani Majozi in June 2020 and Mboweni came out on top with 75.6% compared to Julius Malema at 24.4%, with 2 653 votes counted.

When Mboweni retweeted this poll, another Twitter user decided to run the same poll again on his timeline.

2022 poll

The poll by Africa Research Hub showed that the tables have turned with Malema coming out on top with 84% of the vote.

Return to politics?

Mboweni’s retweet of the original poll also led to some speculating whether he was considering returning to politics.

Asked by The Citizen why he had retweeted the poll and whether he was considering making a comeback, Mboweni said: “I am a pensioner now. Thank you.”

Speaking to The Citizen, Mighti Jamie, Independent Africa researcher and author of the poll said he created the new poll to compare his Twitter audience to that of Mboweni’s.

“Well, Mr. Mboweni posted the poll of his profile and I thought to check whether the sample space of my audience would match his sample space.

“Why Mboweni versus Malema and not Ramaphosa? Simply because of the context of the poll posted by Mr Mboweni,” Jamie said.

Jamie shared his own analysis of how both Mboweni and Malema would fare if running for president of South Africa.

Mboweni

Pros for Mboweni: It would be his experience in the financial sector and his government roles as governor of the Reserve Bank and minister of finance.

Cons: Some people view his economic policy as being conservative and not expansionary.

Malema

Pros for Malema: It would be that he is a young leader and has a youth audience. He has experience as a youth movement leader, a party leader and member of parliament. His economic vision of land expropriation without compensation and other progressive leftist policies are popular with a large section of society.

Cons for Malema: He is viewed as a radical especially on economic policy and some people hold the view that he an authoritarian leader. Others view him as having benefited unduly from VBS Mutual Bank proceeds.”

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