Facebook nudes trip up candidate
Wannabe auditor-general called out on profile
THEY often warn you that your Facebook postings might be career-limiting because employers screen potential employees’ social media accounts.
A senior SA Revenue Service auditor hoping to be the next auditor-general learnt this the hard way when he left parliament with egg on his face after MPs expressed discomfort about Facebook postings they deemed inappropriate for someone vying for the prestigious job.
Avhashoni Ramikosi, a char-
But it’s a lesson that one can never be too careful. It’s been an enlightening experience
tered accountant employed by the taxman, got the surprise of his life on Wednesday when MPs interviewing auditors-general wannabes took him to task about his Facebook “wall”, which carried “his strong political views”, pictures of barebreasted young women and sexually suggestive cartoons.
In one cartoon, a woman with a raised dress to reveal a big derriere instructs her partner to kneel and beg for sex.
In another picture, four young girls pose with their breasts exposed and with prices superimposed on their bodies, while they proclaim in Tsonga, “Hixavisa mirhi (Our bodies are for sale).”
In one Facebook “status update” Ramikosi makes a mockery of the establishment of Mamphela Ramphele’s Agang, asking what the black middle class had to say about the party’s emergence and whether Agang was just another “wasted space just like COPE”.
The DA’s John Steenhuisen led the charge, pointing out to a rattled Ramikosi that this could compromise his political independence should he be appointed as the next chief auditor.
Steenhuisen later told the Sunday Times he felt the pictures were “inappropriate”.
“It’s inappropriate. If you are applying for a job like auditorgeneral, you have to be above reproach, you know. It’s one of those positions where you have to be squeaky clean, because any inference that you are not could impact on the credibility of a supreme body of the country,” he said.
Approached for comment on Friday, Ramikosi initially said he was not aware that there were nude pictures on his Facebook page.
But he later changed his story, claiming the pictures landed on his Facebook wall after he was tagged by a friend.
“It’s rather unfortunate but there was no malice intended. One of my friends tagged me and it landed on my page, but I do understand that it might raise questions about integrity,” said Ramikosi.
“But it’s a lesson that one can never be too careful. It’s been an enlightening experience for me. What I do know is that my ethics and integrity are not questionable at all,” he said.
A visibly embarrassed Ramikosi, who admitted to being a branch-level activist, told MPs during the interview he would resign from those positions if he got the auditorgeneral job.
“I did not know that one day I was going to come here and apply for this position which would conflict my political views. Early in the week somebody warned me that I must change my settings to that of private,” he said.