They were clearly fake Twitter accounts. It’s the string of meaningless numbers in that name that gives it away, sparky, you want to tell the trolls who create them. All created in the same month, with no followers and an incongruous profile picture.
The only time I am followed by numerous, patently fake accounts on Twitter is when I write about ANC politicians, as I did in October about minerals & energy minister Gwede Mantashe’s bizarre behaviour when climate envoys came to SA offering vast sums of money to help save the planet.
Where was the "energy minister"? He had "family commitments", though clearly all the family members of a politician know they come a distant second to rich nations offering vast sums of money.
I was also followed earlier this year after the July riots and several columns about Jacob Zuma and his enabler-in-chief Dali Mpofu.
Some of these bot accounts try ham-fisted attempts at criticising you, but it’s pointless trying to engage with them.
Don’t get me wrong. I love a good debate, but only a fact-based one. It’s hard to have a meaningful conversation with, say, a 60-something male antivaxxer whose proof point is a conspiracy theory about pregnant women who take the Covid vaccine. Not even "Are you pregnant?" is a valid response, according to this man, nor is "This virus can kill you, and you might pass it on and kill someone else."
Whoever is doing this must be doing it for free — given that the ANC can’t even pay its staff
I write critical things about Apple, Facebook and Google and never get followed by bots. Yet, every time I write about an ANC politician, bots pop up in my timeline like pothole repairers the month before an election.
What it demonstrates is that someone with some kind of affiliation to the ANC — or Zuma or Mantashe — cares enough to create false accounts on Twitter whenever I write critically about the ruling party or its miscreant leaders. Whoever is doing this must be doing it for free — given that the ANC can’t even pay its full-time staff.
Given how often such bots appear in my Twitter timeline — it may be happening on other social media platforms, but I don’t check any of the others, so I wouldn’t know — it’s obvious that somebody is also upset when I write about moving from fossil fuels towards renewable energy sources.
Which brings us to the latest bizarre, alternative-reality move by the department of energy & mineral resources: to allow Shell to blast 220 decibels into the waters off the Wild Coast. Imagine having Julius Malema and the EFF bigwigs Airbnbing in the house next to yours in Cape Town before a major event at parliament. For five months, every 10 seconds.
What is this marine-life-deafening survey for? To find oil and gas — just as the world is moving away from fossil fuels. Because, climate change.
Who do Mantashe and his department think they are fooling?
Shapshak is publisher of stuff.co.za and Scrolla.Africa
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