Image credit: Parliament of RSA / Twitter
Image credit: Parliament of RSA / Twitter
Tito Mboweni took to his Twitter account on Thursday night to declare war with the media, echoing the uncomfortable scenes we’ve seen in America recently.
The finance minister accused the South African press of starting “a war with the government”, before reminding social media users of his Zulu warrior ancestry. He also promised that the time for being gentle “is over”, insinuating that both he and the ANC have grown frustrated with the media’s coverage.
Wars start in different ways. Spears and shields, gun powder, bullets, and now through media: printed and electronic ( eg trade wars by a super power President ), and then Social media!! Well, the SA Editors must be Editors!! If needs be, we will be forced into the fight, WAR!
— Tito Mboweni (@tito_mboweni) November 8, 2018
David Maynier is taking these tweets very seriously. The DA shadow minister of finance lambasted his opposite number, branding the actions as a meltdown. Maynier also believes that Mboweni is referencing the way news outlets reported his statements on South African Airways (SAA).
The minister had previously called for the embattled SAA to be shut down, as it guzzles more money upon receiving yet another R5 billion bailout.
However, his comments were not well received by the rest of the party and even drew Cyril Ramaphosa into the debate. The president categorically assured the public that the airline would not be closed down. Maynier suggests that this outburst was “a mistake”:
“Tito Mboweni’s meltdown is presumably related to reporting on the humiliating ‘smackdown’ following his call to close down South African Airways. His attack on editors for reporting on the ‘smackdown’, which are the result of deep divisions, within government, and within the governing party, was a mistake.”
“The fact is that Tito Mboweni needs to get a grip and start acting like a finance minister who is actually capable of dealing with the economic crisis in South Africa. A good place to start would be focusing on the 9.75 million people who do not have jobs, or who have given up looking for jobs, in South Africa.”
Mboweni’s words aren’t a million miles away from those used by Donald Trump, in his dystopian quest to control the US media. He’s frequently branded CNN as “the enemy of the people” and even ejected senior reporter Jim Acosta from a recent White House press briefing.
