LISTEN: Motshekga slams spokesperson’s ‘sexist’ tweets
The Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga has expressed shock at the recent tweets, meant to promote reading, by the department's spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga.
Mhlanga is under fire after several provocative tweets of half-naked women on Twitter promoting the department's #Read2Lead campaign.
The campaign was first launched in 2015.
"The minister has expressed surprise and shock at the pictures. The message was clear, it was an attempt to promote reading and encouraging people to read at their leisure time. But the minister is not happy with the pictures that were used, the pictures were quite provocative and demeaning and objectified women," says department’s spokesperson Hope Mokgathle.
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Mhlanga has since deleted the tweets and issued an apology on Twitter.
I have noted that one image in particular may have offended sensitive viewers. This however, was not the intention and we strongly reject any view to that effect. To those I disappointed and indeed those of you who are offended by the use of the images I apologize.
— Elijah Mhlanga (@ElijahMhlanga) August 12, 2019
We hope this issue will heighten interest in and sustain a conversation about the importance of reading and its significance in human development.
— Elijah Mhlanga (@ElijahMhlanga) August 12, 2019
Yours in reading🙏
On Saturday, I posted a series of tweets about the Department's Read To Lead Campaign aimed at promoting reading amongst young adults and people of school going age and society in general.
— Elijah Mhlanga (@ElijahMhlanga) August 12, 2019
Women and children's rights advocacy group #NotInMyName has rejected the apology.
"He, in no way, acknowledges how detrimental those images are to both the target audience and society as a whole, considering the state we find the nation in as far as the basic tenets of patriarchy are concerned," says the organisation’s Mo Senne.
Motshekga has instructed the department's director-general to investigate the matter.