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Twitter declares Tito Mboweni the minister of garlic
The minister's well known habit of showing off his cooking skills on social media continues to be met with a mixed reception.
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni photoshopped onto a can of Lucky Star pilchards. Picture: Twitter.
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni is well known for showing off his amateur cooking talent on Twitter and has been dubbed the ‘minister of Lucky Star’ for his constant tweeting about the popular brand of pilchard.
Some have suggested that he has shares in the Lucky Star brand, but he has clarified that “I have no relationship with them but enjoy the fish”.
However, when he took to Twitter to offer his “best dinner of the year”, a Lucky Star pilchards stew, it wasn’t the pilchards themselves which took centre stage but the amount of garlic Mboweni appeared to have used in the dish.
The minister received many responses, almost all of which mentioned the amount of garlic he used, with many questioning it, although some did express the view that there is “no such thing” as too much garlic.
Whether Mboweni has taken all the garlic criticism in his stride is unclear. While he is well known for his social media presence, evening earning himself the nickname ‘Tweeto‘ at one point, he recently left Twitter, calling it an “abusive” platform.
“After a long thought process, I have decided not to do any original tweets anymore. I might, just might, retweet (not endorsement). I came to the conclusion that Twitter is no longer about its original purpose: ie to create a networked society. It is now an abusive platform,” he tweeted in October.
In December, however, he was persuaded to rejoin the social network by his “Kigali friends”, including none other than Rwandan President Paul Kagame himself.
Mboweni is known for his love of Kigali, and at one point was met with criticism from South Africans on social media for saying the Rwandan capital was cleaner than Johannesburg.
Following a tweet from Kagame saying Mboweni should go back to tweeting, the minister said he’d make a “final decision” on December 13. Later that day, he announced his decision to rejoin the platform: “Whilst some are doing a huge Brexit vote, my decision is #IAmStaying here,” he tweeted.
Garlic Minister 😂😅😂😅 pic.twitter.com/H2FoozHnsN
— Zakes (@pulevictor) December 31, 2019
So much of garlic, were you hosting evil vampires minister?
— Lon (@Quinfdsouth) December 30, 2019
That is alot of garlic!
— Dimakatso Komape (@DimakatsoKomape) December 30, 2019
My leader, so much garlic? 🤔🤔🤔, anyway the late Cde Manto Shabalala Msimang, advocated for ginger, GARLIC & beetroot, as a healthy diet.
— Rudolph Madlala (@madlala1975) December 30, 2019
https://twitter.com/OlwethuMtati/status/1211733946393911298
https://twitter.com/DefacedPicasso/status/1211749602795372560
The Late Manto Tshabalala Msimang did say garlic was good for us, but this is too much.😭
— Nomi 👑 (@Nombusoo20) December 30, 2019
@Nombusoo20 is it even legal to use so much garlic 😭😭😭😭
— uGqirha 🎈 (@Dr_Zolani) December 30, 2019
Eh, so many cloves of garlic 😱
— Nosipho Tshabalala (@nostshabs) December 30, 2019
I love it Minister, your ingredients, particularly garlic, do it for me! Most people are not aware of the nutritional value and health benefits of garlic, it works as antibiotics, the more (reasonable) the better👌
— Sello Tsolo (@skhalos23) December 31, 2019
But the whole knob of garlic minister? Your pores will start to smell.. every last one of them.
— Mo (@MohlalaMo) December 31, 2019
It's obvious pic.twitter.com/BUVHqjlk8R
— Noluvuko Faith Damba (@Faith_Damba) June 10, 2019
(Compiled by Daniel Friedman)
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