rdm.co.za
Gareth van Onselen looks at 2015's top deleted tweets, ferocious back-pedalling and those who tweeted themselves into a corner
Monyela image from
Excerpt:
The Secret Service "gone rogue" award
Winner: The Secret Service "gone rogue" award
Winner: Clayson Monyela
Account: @ClaysonMonyela
Citation: Monyela is SA’s head of public diplomacy. He won this exact award last year, making our second two-time winner and he continues to delete tweets at an astounding rate. Last year was spent belittling Nigeria, this year it was the turn of human rights. "No country conducts its foreign policy on the basis of Human Rights, btw. National interest is central … look around. #justsaying".
Well, here is something else to just say: if human rights were a country’s main national interest, his point would be redundant. And that, really, gives the game away. From Omar al-Bashir of Sudan through to Zimbabwe, would seem to capture the nature of our attitude to foreign relations: friends first, principles second. ...