Durban - He has been dubbed the Obama of Soweto and asked how he likes his coffee.
Of course, he has also been questioned about how he will lead the DA.
The DA’s new leader Mmusi Maimane hosted a “Twitter Town Hall” where South Africans had the opportunity to ask him questions on the social network.
More than 100 000 tweets, ranging from the serious to the ridiculous, circulated with the hashtag #AskMmusi, which trended worldwide for most of Wednesday.
Maimane had gained over 7 000 new followers after he displayed both his funny and and more serious side in the one-hour engagement.
Serious questions included, “if you could serve in cabinet, excluding the presidency, which portfolio would you prefer and why” and less serious ones like, “Do you still call Airtime units”?
The witty politician said he was entertained by some of the questions and impressed by the more serious ones.
“Twitter is the most direct way I can engage with South Africans, who I am accountable to. It was also an opportunity to give South Africans my vision for South Africa and the DA. I laughed a few times. I was also impressed with questions about education, BEE and the economy,” Maimane said.
His favourite question was about his preference between television shows Generations and Isidingo. He was also asked about Beyoncé.
“The only thing that prevented me from answering all the questions, was the volume and time,” he said.
Branding and political analysts have praised Maimane for taking to social media to engage South Africans, but warned that the tactic could backfire if not managed properly.
The DA hailed the success of the “Twitter Town Hall”, which is likely to see a spike in the use of social media platforms by political parties as they start their campaigns before the local government elections next year.
Speaking to The Mercury on Wednesday night, the DA’s communications director, Jamie Turkington, said they were happy with the response received from the tweeps (followers on Twitter.)
“He wasn’t expecting such a response but he is more familiar with Twitter than Facebook, so he was able to respond quite quickly to most of them. We will be going through each tweet to see if there are issues that he may need to delve deeper into,” he said.
Asked whether Maimane was overwhelmed at having trended internationally for most of the day, Turkington said the technologically-savvy leader had not been aware of his trending status.
“He is going to do this whenever he gets a chance because we believe it’s a great platform to communicate with the public on issues that affect our country,” he said.
University of KwaZulu-Natal media expert, Professor Ruth Teer-Tomaselli, said being accessible on social media made Maimane appealing to young voters, especially in a country where some politicians do not engage the public on such platforms.
“Social media has been shown to be of extreme importance in political campaigns around the world, while traditional media such as posters can be viewed as outdated,” she said.
However, Teer-Tomaselli warned that while social media was considered “cool and immediate”, it was also “shallow” and lacked the depth needed for some of the issues the public might need to be informed on. She advised politicians to be wary of some of the topics discussed on social media because the platform was unregulated.
“Using Twitter is really essential and any politician who cannot use Twitter or Facebook in 2015 is doomed to have a very short political life, but there has to be balance between the new and traditional media,” she said.
Political analyst Protas Madlala was unimpressed by Maimane’s Twitter Town Hall, describing it as an indication of immaturity in the leadership. “You do not go to the public and expose yourself like this. The first move is very important, that is what people will remember about you,” he said.
Madlala said Maimane should have known the public was going to respond the way it did, “make a joke out of it”.
“Most of them were enticed into social media after seeing the success of US President Barack Obama in one of the elections.
“Don’t forget that this guy always imitates Obama, even when he is speaking.
“Politicians should be very careful how they use social media because they could end up being asked things they do not want to be asked.”
Political analyst Imraan Buccus thought Maimane’s attempt to connect with the public should be welcomed.
“One of the failings of post-apartheid South Africa has been the lack of participated democracy. There has been a huge disconnect between political stakeholders and communities,” he said.
“Even though the constitution, various pieces of legislation and various policy frameworks allow people to participate in the democracy, there has not been any real meaningful engagement happening over the last two decades,” he said.
Like Teer-Tomaselli, he also warned politicians to use social media responsibly.
“Maimane, the DA and other political parties who want to go this route would need to think more carefully about how it is ‘regulated’ in order to ensure that meaningful questions are asked.”
EFF MP Floyd Shivambu honed in on Maimane’s familiarity with Cape Town’s restaurants when he asked: “Where do they sell traditional food here in Cape Town?”
Another familiar politician in the Twitterverse, the Minister of Sport and Recreation, Fikile Mbalula, tweeted: “Why did Drake allow it to be too late before we read it? #askYouKnowWho” referring to the title of the Canadian rapper’s latest album If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late.
Maimane was unable to respond to all the tweets that flooded his timeline, but he was clear on the DA’s race versus politics stance when GC@guillClark asked: “Honestly, how are you going to get more people to vote for you? And especially how are you gonna get the white folk?”
He responded: “We don’t mobilise on the basis of race. Our values of Freedom, Fairness, Opportunity are central to the DA.”
The Mercury and Cape Argus