'Twitter is an abusive platform' – Tito Mboweni stresses in early hours

30 October 2019 - 08:51 By IAVAN PIJOOS
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Tito Mboweni will on Wednesday afternoon deliver a crucial medium-term budget policy statement.
Tito Mboweni will on Wednesday afternoon deliver a crucial medium-term budget policy statement.
Image: Esa Alexander

Finance minister Tito Mboweni has decided to take a break from tweeting, saying Twitter is an abusive platform.  

“After a long thought process, I have decided not to do any original tweets anymore," he tweeted at 1.43am to his 456,300 followers.

The politician's Twitter account is known for his lighthearted posts depicting his love of food, with cooking demonstrations of stews and tinned fish recipes, among other interests.

Rwanda also made it to the trends list several times last year after Mboweni tweeted about his love for the country. Every time he mentioned how clean it was, Twitter responded. In fact, they even went as far as to nickname Mboweni 'Mr Kigali'.

"I might, just might, retweet (not endorsement)," he said in the early hours of this morning.

“I came to the conclusion that Twitter is no longer about its original purpose: ie to create a networked society. It is now an abusive platform,” Mboweni shared.

Mboweni's restless night pondering comments on the social media platform comes ahead of the government's crucial medium-term budget policy statement on Wednesday afternoon, which he will deliver from 2pm.

Mboweni made headlines at the weekend after a story about an alleged "love triangle" involving him, minister of mineral resources and energy Gwede Mantashe and "slay queen" Lerato Habiba Makgatho was published.


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