I recently attended a New Age Business Briefing at the Cape Town International Convention Centre as a Twitter guest of Front Foot Events and Dorette Steenkamp, who tweets for @capetown. The idea was for Twitter guests to provide instant online coverage of discussions with Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille and generate interest in the event using the hash tag #tnabizbrief.
Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille talks to celebrity tweeter Soli Philander. Photo by Roy Barford
This event was an excellent example of how Twitter has broken down communication barriers between the general public and top government officials.
Zille is also the premier of the Western Cape and it is evident that she takes note of questions as well as comments that she is “mentioned” in. She has nearly 108 000 Twitter followers and has published more than 7 500 tweets. There are also more than 212 000 people who like her Facebook page.
During her address at the New Age Business Briefing, she said that job-creating economic growth was the number one priority of the Western Cape government. “Poverty and unemployment are South Africa’s biggest problems,” she said.
Asked about her relationship with President Jacob Zuma (also the leader of the African National Congress), Zille said: “I don’t think there is anyone in my own party who is as nice to me as President Zuma.” She explained that despite their political rivalry, they got along very well.
Zuma will be the guest speaker at the New Age Business Briefing on February 10, which will be held at the GrandWest Casino and Entertainment World. Visit the Front Foot Events website to book your seat. Jacob Zuma is also on Twitter.
To anyone wishing to connect on Twitter, my handle is @RoyBarford23.