EQUAL Education (EE) and Helen Zille having been going head-to-head on Twitter, with EE demanding an apology and a retraction from the Western Cape Premier after she had linked them to an inflammatory tweet.
Matters came to a head last week after the EE’s Western Cape Leadership Committee, consisting of pupils from schools across the province, decided to submit an audit on the safety and sanitation conditions in schools in the province directly to the Education MEC, Debbie Schäfer – at her house.
Schäfer said: “A line had been crossed”, adding that the incident had been ‘intimidatory’ and that the pupils were guilty of publicity-seeking behaviour.
Zille voiced her displeasure at the pupils’ actions by using twitter to attack the EE. “I firmly believe that @equal_education has done nothing about the CORE problems in education except exacerbate them.”
This sparked a Twitter storm between the EE, the Premier and the MEC. The exchanges took a vicious turn when Zille re-tweeted an EE screen grab. The original tweet from @leezo_buya read: “@equal_education @ZackieAchmat @helenzille I’m told that the more palestinian toddlers get killed the more funding @Our_DA gets.”
EE national treasurer, Doron Isaacs, said there was no connection between the originator of the defamatory tweet and EE.
“We do not know this person and the image clearly shows Zille is incorrect and her claim is a lie. As a social movement, our tweet was in agreement that the original tweet was prejudiced and defamatory.
“The fact that this person has said he isn’t associated with us has not stopped Zille from continuing to slate us. We hope she will apologise.”