Human settlements denies paying influencers to promote its budget vote speech amid backlash

The human settlements department has refuted claims that it hired social media influencers to promote minister Lindiwe Sisulu's work and budget vote speech.

This comes after some social media users picked up on several tweets speaking about the importance of the budget vote, under the hashtag #DHSBudgetVote2021.

This led to accusations that influencers were allegedly paid by the minister to create hype around the speech online. 

One SA Movement leader Mmusi Maimane was among those who weighed in on the matter, alleging that those involved were part of “R200 Twitter”.

Refuting the claims, the director-general of the department, Mbulelo Tshangana, said it did not procure the services of social media influencers.

“We appreciate what the public, including the individuals mentioned, has done and continues to do to communicate our work. We would like to be clear that the department did not pay for services from social media influencers,” said Tshangana.

He said the department's communications team was responsible for sharing the human settlements budget vote on social media.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has taught us that we need to do things differently and among those is to use social media to communicate our message. That is what the communications team did for the human settlements' budget vote,” he said.