TOM EATON: Response to Mboweni’s tweets shows we are getting too used to war talk
After the finance minister threatened war against the media, the limp reaction is what should alarm us
The three tweets threatening war against SA’s media were pompous and melodramatic, the liberal use of capital letters and double exclamation marks suggesting that whoever was writing them was probably not very bright and floating in a bubble of angry, dissentient reaction. Except this wasn’t a furious illiterate hammering away in his mom’s basement. This was the finance minister of the Republic of SA. “Wars start in different ways,” Tito Mboweni tweeted on Thursday night. “Spears and shields, gun powder, bullets and now through media: printed and electronic … and then Social media!! Well, the SA Editors must be Editors!! If needs be, we will be forced into the fight, WAR.” A minute later, perhaps remembering the reading abilities of people on Twitter, he clarified: “The problem is that there will be COLLATERAL DAMAGE!” Finally, after a 40-minute break during which I assume he punched the air and yelled “Who the man?” at his alarmed dog, Mboweni returned to Twitter just to make sure ...
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