CAPE TOWN - South Africans have taken the opportunity to flood Twitter with questions for Finance Minister Tito Mboweni.
This was after the minister announced that he will be hosting a live Q&A on Twitter this morning at 11 am. You can watch the question session live on Business Report.
Mboweni said the main topic will be South Africa's economy.
We will do a live Twitter Q and A session on Monday at 11.00. Be ready with your questions. Topic: the SA Economy.
— Tito Mboweni (@tito_mboweni) November 8, 2018
Some of the questions South Africans have posed to the minister include:
Ok cool but do you think that South Africans especially in Townships and rural areas are educated and disciplined enough to understand responsible use of weed? I'm not sure.......
— Ngiyabuya 🔴⚫ (@PhMsomi) November 9, 2018
Just two suggestions from me minister.
1. Get the banks to stop advertising debts (loans), they can still give them if you go to them just like tobacco products. 2) And add financial education in the schooling system. Everyone must know that debts are bad.
— LAST of the dying BREED (@MJ_NgwenyaSA) November 9, 2018
I would love to ask it here Minister so you prepare for it plz..but you can give your answer on monday.
Do you think building Malls and shopping centers in our township doing favour for our mother's businesses or it destroyed their will of entreprenearship?
— Biza Biza (@BizaBiza7) November 8, 2018
Please include why it is so difficult for the youth to get funding for startups...we have to fight against corruption and unfair and ineffective barriers. Also why are conversations about youth entrepreneurship held by mostly old people in the absence of the youth?
— Diketso Phokungwane (@DkThaddeus) November 8, 2018
TWITTER 'MELTDOWN'
On Friday, the DA slammed Tito Mboweni for what they called a Twitter 'meltdown'.
This was after Mboweni posted a series of messages on Twitter.
Mboweni, who faces opposition over the continued government bailouts for South African Airways since he took over as finance minister last month, tweeted some coded messages about wars and collateral damage, insinuating the media's complicity in the "war".
"Wars start in different ways. Spears and shields, gunpowder, bullets, and now through media: printed and electronic (e.g. trade wars by a superpower President ), and then Social media!! Well, the SA Editors must be Editors!! If needs be, we will be forced into the fight, WAR!," he tweeted.
"Many people might not know this, I am a product of the warrior commanders of the mighty Zulu Army from the northern part of KZN, eNgwavuma, we fear nothing! We die only with spears on our chests NOT our backs. Mayihlome! We face the fire NOT run away from it. The time to be gentle is OVER. The line has been drawn on the sand! This far and no further."
David Maynier, DA spokesperson on finance, said Mboweni needs to get a grip and start acting like a finance minister in South Africa.
"Tito Mboweni’s meltdown is presumably related to reporting on the humiliating 'smack-down' following his call to close down South African Airways. His attack on editors for reporting on the smack-down, which are the result of deep divisions, within government and within the governing party, was a mistake," Maynier said.
"The fact is that Tito Mboweni needs to get a grip and start acting like a finance minister who is actually capable of dealing with the economic crisis in South Africa.
"A good place to start would be for him to stop tweeting and start focusing on the 9.75 million people who do not have jobs, or who have given up looking for jobs, in South Africa."