Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi‚ who is taking flak on social media for his perceived stance against Afrikaans language schools‚ says he is being harassed and threatened by rightwingers - to the extent that a protester "hung" an effigy of him outside the national education department offices.

"These morons came to our offices to 'hang' me! We defeated your racists grandparents‚ you are nothing!‚" he tweeted.

"Yes‚ they proudly 'hanged' me‚" he said‚ in response to a question from a Twitter user.

Lesufi swiftly gained support and encouragement:

Makhosini Nkosi shared‚ "Given this country’s history‚ the hanging of MEC Lesufi’s effigy is extremely in bad taste and may border on hate speech. We surely can disagree without being disagreeable."

Khumbudzo @Khumbu_M wrote: "I guess their kids doesn’t want to attend primary school with us blacks hence this. Tell them we didn’t hang ourselves when Afrikaans was imposed to us forcefully."

"Shocking!! This harks back to the lynching of black people in the US‚ and the hangings of political prisoners in SA‚" said Parachichi @steve_lawrie777.

Thabang @thabangtladi advised Lesufi to keep up the fight‚ "Aluta Continua . . . be strong and resolute!"