Twitter is the preferred platform for government leaders to engage with citizens

The year 2022 was considered a big one for the country's governing party — which also held its national elective conference in December — on social media, and specifically Twitter.

According to Decode Comms, a Johannesburg-based communications agency, citizens witnessed many government communications blurring the lines in the name of  “this is my personal account, no one will tell me how to conduct myself”, and conflating the party and the state.

One of the offenders highlighted is the spokesperson for the president, Vincent Magwenya, who according to the agency started his job well on Twitter by rebranding his handle to reflect his role.

However, Magwenya allegedly blurred the lines by being “emboldened to project the party message in his capacity as a government official at the ANC’s national congress in December 2022”, saying the behaviour of a “seasoned communicator like him was worrying to observe”.

The agency, through the #GovCommsSocial initiative, provides a knowledge-sharing platform aimed at guiding government and public sector communicators and social media professionals through the complexity and opportunities that come with using social media for citizen engagement.

Its report noted the top noteworthy events that took place in the past year, ranked from one to 10, with the burning and fires around parliament taking pole position, and Eskom and its debilitating load-shedding under the leadership of CEO Andre de Ruyter in position number 10.

Other events that dominated news cycles in the rankings were the release of the state capture commission reports and arrests thereafter of political and business elites, the coronation of the Zulu King, the Phala Phala scandal involving President Cyril Ramaphosa, the Enyobeni tavern tragedy that saw the deaths of 21 teenagers during Youth Month and the KwaZulu-Natal floods as one of the country’s most badly managed natural disasters.

The stats were published in the third annual South African Government Leaders on Twitter report, determined as a benchmark tool with the purpose of reflecting on the presence and activity of cabinet members and their spokespeople on the microblogging app.

The most followed cabinet members were transport minister Fikile Mbalula with 2.89-million users, followed by Ramaphosa with 2.53-million and mineral resources and energy minister Gwede Mantashe with 515,000 Twitter followers.

The national departments with the highest number of followers were the Presidency at 2.32-million users, the police service with 1.09-million followers and the health department with a following of 392,000.

Cabinet members’ spokespeople were also identified in the study, which sought to understand whether government leaders and their spokespeople saw Twitter as a “nice to have” or as “an integral part of their outreach in rapid response mechanism”.

Sports, arts and culture spokesperson Masechaba Khumalo ranked top of the list with 525 000 followers. The transport ministry’s Lwazilwaphesheya Khoza had 138,000 followers and the police service’s Lirandzu Themba has 69,600.

In provincial cabinets, the premiers of KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga were the only provincial heads who did not have Twitter accounts.

Mpumalanga and Northern Cape recorded the lowest number of provincial cabinet members on Twitter, with three and two active accounts  respectively.

Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi, KwaZulu-Natal co-operative governance and traditional affairs MEC Sihle Zikalala and Gauteng MEC Lebogang Maile ranked as the most-followed provincial cabinet members.

As a platform, Twitter is considered the preferred social media space over other platforms such as Facebook, despite Facebook having the highest number of active users in the country.

The report found “Twitter overexposure” was a risk for government leaders who preferred the microblogging app as opposed to learning to prioritise other social platforms for citizen engagement.

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“This skew has created dependency on Twitter instead of a more diversified approach to connecting and engaging with citizens. This presents several risks. Presidency, ministers, premiers, MECs and spokespeople with huge followings lend their respective departments the necessary muscle to connect and engage with citizens. However, when they leave, they leave with the audience,” the report read.

Despite the mishaps and communication shortfalls documented in the report, The Special Investigating Unit has been hailed for “consistently setting a good standard and benchmark of how to optimally utilise social media to demonstrate public value and continuously educate citizens about its mandate”.

The agency suggested government communications digital strategies should adopt a diversified approach to connecting and engaging with citizens, with intentional content strategies for Facebook, TikTok and YouTube.

 TimesLIVE