Get over your addiction, Helen Zille. You are now beginning to make a “tweet” of yourself, writes Dennis Pather.
Be warned. If you’re not careful, you run the risk of becoming a Twitter addict - just like all those druggies who can’t do without their daily fix of ecstasy, tik or cocaine.
As one expert put it, Twitter addicts are dry swallowing invisible, self-prescribed tablets every morning to which they eventually become compulsively or physiologically dependent.
Just look at US President Donald Trump. He can’t go a single day without tweeting. He scripts his 140-character impulsive outbursts without rhyme, reason or any respect for the truth.
It’s now his weapon of choice - when he wants to blame the opposition Democrats for manufacturing stories to discredit him or when he tries to spread blatant lies that Barack Obama had wire-tapped Trump Tower.
And when he’s forced to be away from Twitter - for an occasional round of golf with the boys - he probably goes through serious withdrawal symptoms, feeling deprived, unhappy, snappy and out of the loop.
Some people fear he’ll get up one morning and use Twitter to declare World War III.
But why go so far when we have our own Twitter junkies right here in South Africa. And they range from out-and-out bigots who still believe only white is right to self-proclaimed Rainbow Nation disciples who talk glibly about non-racism, yet show their true colours on social media.
All have one thing in common: once exposed, they rush to offer half-hearted apologies.
Although not a card-carrying member of the DA, I’ve long had a sneaking respect for Western Cape Premier Helen Zille, both for her role as a courageous journalist during the apartheid years and later as leader of the Opposition since democracy.
But her recent rash of provocative tweets, especially her contemptuous attempt to sugar-coat the evils of colonialism, left me cold. Zille can make a thousand apologies and put whatever spin she wishes on that tweet about colonialism, but the hurt will be hard to erase.
Even if, as she claimed, colonialism did help with development, bringing transport infrastructure and water to the world, on whose backs were these resources built?
Let’s not pretend such infrastructure was the benevolent result of mutually agreed joint efforts by the oppressor and the oppressed.
So get over your addiction, Helen. You had a political life before this, having served your party and country with distinction and selfless conviction. But you are now beginning to make a “tweet” of yourself.