The twar that wasn’t: how Zelda and Redi showed that Twitter will also be sane

Stuart Thomas: Senior reporter by
January 18, 2015
 
 

On Saturday, the South African Twittersphere was set into a recent rage spiral following feedback from Nelson Mandela’s former PA and confidant Zelda la Grange that president Jacob Zuma made white folks really feel unwelcome within the united states.

The tirade, which went on for various tweets, echoed most of the frustrations which South Africans across the commercial and social spectrum have felt with Zuma however, sadly, framed it within a racial narrative.

Many tweeters latched onto this, suggesting that the veil of the “rainbow nation” had slipped. The tone of one of the most responses to la Grange in the meantime seemed to counsel that her relationship with Mandela used to be a facade and that she had harbored racist emotions all alongside.

this is something which la Grange fervently denied:

curiously, the interplay which some sections of the media have been fast to call a twar — between la Grange and talk radio presenter Redi Thlabi — was in all probability probably the most sane lately.

with a purpose to see why, it’s value inspecting Thlabi’s response, which used tutorial rigor over emotion and sentiment, in full:

evaluate that with the change that passed off between sports activities minister Fikile Mbalula and EFF chief Julius Malema remaining year. It’s gossipy, stuffed with allusions to data one has on the other and is about as a ways from the traditions of rigorous debate as a school floor fist struggle. that may be a twar.

Thalbi’s response to la Grange’s tweets is far from that. It’s a rare moment of lucidity and sanity that stands in sharp contrast to the same old frenzied witch hunt that accompanies most identical incidents on the social network.

La Grange in the meantime looked as if it would have regarded as at least some of the responses to her tweets and through the top of the day she had apologised.

there’ll, inevitably, be people who don’t settle for the apology. That stated, even probably the most laborious-headed tweeter would have to admit that it shows making a mistake on Twitter doesn’t mechanically mean descending into the kind of pariah who sues puppets.

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