The national treasury on Monday warned of a fake Twitter account claiming to be that of newly appointed finance minister Nhlanhla Nene. “Minister Nene does not have a Twitter account,” spokesman Zwikhodo Netshituni said in a statement.
“The Twitter account with a handle @NhlanhlaNeneZA is counterfeit.”
The account, with 3 603 followers, has tweeted 17 times and has a picture of Nene on its profile.
The latest tweet says: “This woman, @ThuliMadonsela3, immensely inspires me. As Time magazine said, she’s an example of what an African civil servant ought to be.”
Another tweet said: “Oh, boy. I haven’t even formally assumed office and the Democratic Alliance is putting pressure on me already.”
Another says: “My brains did not fallout when I fell off that chair. I won’t collapse the SA economy. Have faith in me, fellow South Africans.”
In 2008, a video clip of a chair breaking under Nene, parliament’s then finance committee chairman, during a television interview made world news.
The clip was viewed over 279 000 times on YouTube and his fall made it onto the BBC and the Telegraph’s website. The video also did the rounds on Facebook and Twitter, and was the subject of debate on radio talk shows.
Nene was being filmed in an interview on SABC2’s “View from the House” when a cracking sound was heard, but he continued talking. This was followed by another cracking sound and he fell to the floor, scrabbling at the table briefly, as the chair collapsed under him. — Sapa
