KwaZulu-Natal premier criticises ‘disgusting’ social media campaign

The KwaZulu-Natal provincial government has distanced itself from a bizarre online “campaign” purporting to promote the provincial budget.

In a statement yesterday‚ premier Sihle Zikalala said no department had paid influencers to tweet a hashtag promoting Tuesday’s 2020 budget presentation.

“It has come to the provincial government’s attention that there are social media users who are posting disgusting images using the 2020 KZN Budget as their hashtag‚ claiming they have been paid to do so.

“We want to put it on record that no single provincial government department has paid any influencers to promote their budget votes‚” Zikalala said in a statement.

The “campaign” was a sensational minefield of cringeworthy tweets bearing content unrelated to the budget.

The “influencers” were not accounts known to have any influence or interest in governance and the content of the tweets bore testimony to that.

Though some of the tweets were sexually suggestive‚ the rest were mild jokes.

“The government did not need to use so-called influencers‚ as it is able to promote its budget presentations using its own social media platforms and has successfully done so at no cost.

“Besides‚ paying influencers would have gone against the spirit of clean governance and Public Finance Management Act regulations‚” Zikalala said.

He warned the people behind the campaign to stop immediately or face “stern action”.