‘Honest news’: SABC probes ‘good politician’ tweet blunder

On Sunday, SABC News, in response to user’s tweet, said: “A good politician!?! Do you know what Oxymoron means”. Needless to say, this has caused a Twitter storm.

Twitter blunder

The tweet has since been deleted, with SABC News saying it “distances itself from the tweet”.

“We are, however, investigating the matter.”

In the lead up to the most fun to be had on Twitter in a while, former radio host Redi Tlhabi shared a tweet about the R150 million Digital Vibes funds which could be traced back to Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize.

In response to Tlhabi’s tweet — in which she remarked: “In the middle of a flippen [sic] pandemic. Greedy, immoral thugs” — another user said they thought Mkhize was “one of the good politicians”.

It is likely that someone on the SABC News team thought they were logged into their personal account when they responded.

Response to SABC News tweet

Mistakes happen, as unfortunate as they appear to be sometimes. That said, South Africans were not as likely to let the blunder slide.

Netizens had a field day with the debacle, with one user asking why SABC News shared a screenshot of the tweet in the first place:

“Mara on second thought, why are you putting the screenshot? You take a screenshot, delete the original tweet, post the screenshot and snitch on yourself while distancing yourself from yourself. Yi filim, honestly, this app must have a curfew.”

Another asked why SABC was distancing itself as this was “probably the first honest news in years”. The user said they’d even go as far as to say it “was award winning”.

However, former DA MP Phumzile van Damme reminded Twitter users that “mistakes happen”. She called on the SABC to refrain from “terrorising this poor staff member”.

“Mistakes happen. Storm in a teacup. Simmer down and SABC, please don’t terrorise this poor staff member to satisfy public outrage.”

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