Zuma asks his ‘Twitter son’ Duduzane, ‘Who are you?’
The former president's first interaction with someone on social media has turned out to be rather typical of Twitter's pitfalls.
Duduzane Zuma sits next to his father former president Jacob Zuma at the Randburg Magistrate Court in Johannesburg. Duduzane Zuma is facing a culpable homicide charge after crashing into a taxi in 2014.
Three days after announcing his arrival on Twitter, former president Jacob Zuma has had his first interaction with another user, and it appears to be with someone pretending to be his son Duduzane.
Zuma will have a lot to learn about life on the Twitter streets, with fake profiles being just one of the many pitfalls. Already there are numerous hoax accounts trying to pass themselves off as the real Zuma account, which could fool a few people until he gets the blue tick in his profile to verify that his account is the genuine one.
He told the “fake” Duduzane on Sunday morning: “Thank you very much for welcoming me but who are you because my son is not on twitter.”
Thank you very much for welcoming me but who are you because my son is not on twitter https://t.co/eEPHidopS9
— Jacob G Zuma (@PresJGZuma) December 16, 2018
Duduzane may actually have participated on Twitter in the past, only to be run out of town by unimpressed tweeps attacking him for his association with the Gupta family.
The account with which Zuma interacted today has often faced abuse from tweeps who don’t agree with his statements. The account purporting to be his son regularly retweets messages opposed to white monopoly capital, and is supportive of the BLF and the idea of radical economic transformation.
While many have long wondered about whether the account may be real, Zuma Senior appears to have given the definitive answer.
On Friday morning, he announced that he had decided to join major social media channels.
In a video, Zuma said: “Hello everyone. I have decided to move with times, to join this important area of conversation because I hear many people are talking about me – as well as others are … calling themselves Zuma in many ways.
“I felt it is necessary that I should join in and be part of the conversation and join the people in their discussions.
“It’s me, former president Jacob Zuma.”
He later tweeted a second video in which he admitted he still had a lot to learn about how to use the medium.
I am still learning about the sphithiphithi of social media pic.twitter.com/3nNgZGTQde
— Jacob G Zuma (@PresJGZuma) December 15, 2018
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