Cape Town – Outgoing Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula remains the leading Twitter account holder in the government with more than 2.8 million followers.
Mbalula is followed closely by President Cyril Ramaphosa , whose account has a healthy following of 2.5 million, up from 2.1 million the previous year.
Pan-African reputation management agency Decode Communications on Tuesday released its annual report on South African Government Leaders on Twitter which found that government has improved significantly in the use of Twitter in 2022, growing from 67% in 2021 to 72% in 2022.
Although all the top 10 government twitter accounts showed growth in the year under review, all the other eight paled in numbers compared to Mbalula’s and Ramaphosa’s.
Gwede Mantashe of Mineral Resources and Energy has just over 500 000 followers, while. Minister of Public Works, Patricia De Lille has 224 000 followers.
Unlike in 2021, all the top 10 most followed accounts of cabinet members and the top 10 most followed national departments in 2022 were verified.
The report also found that none of the 10 most followed accounts of cabinet members’ spokespeople were verified and the majority of government spokespeople did not use Twitter for policy communication and promotion of messages of their departments and principals.
The report noted that it was unfortunate that social media accounts of government leaders were not institutionalised, which was a missed opportunity for ministers like Dr Joe Phaahla for health and Bheki Cele for police, both of whom are big newsmakers.
When it comes to departments, Transport does not feature in the top 10, showing that Mbalula’s followers may be about the person more than the office, Decode Communications noted.
The presidency’s account has 2,3-million followers, a 13,26% jump from 2021.
The second most popular departmental account is the South African Police Service at one million followers, up from 889 000 in 2021.
When it comes to provinces the leaders of the pack are Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi (400 000), former KwaZulu-Natal premier Sihle Zikalala (119 000) and Gauteng Human Settlements MEC Lebogang Maile (65 000).
The North West, Mpumalanga and Free State governments feature poorly on Twitter.
Cape Times