Some things, once seen, can never be unseen. Similarly, some things – well, everything, really – once tweeted, cannot be untweeted. That’s what I love about Twitter. Once it’s out there, it’s out there, and often the resultant attempts at damage limitation that follow a twitter gaffe make for great entertainment.

While every Tom, Dick and Harry tweets, and does so relentlessly about every asinine detail of their morbidly boring lives, I’m specifically interested in the Twitter screw-ups of public figures. And by public figures, I don’t mean Kim Kardashian and her over-hyped posterior. I’m talking about world leaders, politicians and other self-righteous and opinionated twits, who out themselves by occasionally tweeting with their brains stuck in neutral.

I sincerely encourage our politicians to take up social networking. Not to engage with the masses, or to supposedly be more accessible to the little man in the street, but to occasionally let us know what they are really thinking.

The beauty of Twitter is that there is nowhere to hide. One of the latest high-level gaffes in South African politics was that of Clayson Monyela, the spokesman for the Department of International Relations and Co-operation. Soon after tweeting that the suspects arrested for the gang-rape of a 17-year-old girl should themselves be raped in prison, he experienced the full wrath of Just Detention International, who accused him of encouraging prison rape.

It was at that point that poor Clayson learnt just what a one-way street Twitter really is. Faced with accusations of being “irresponsible”, and making “horrifying” remarks, Clayson tried some fancy dancing to get out of this one.

“On the day the story broke, I tweeted that I shall be praying for them to get a taste of their own medicine. I didn’t call for that. I said I prayed for it. But then I realised that was a bit over the top and retracted the remark,” he was quoted as saying by a national daily.

Nice try, bro. But no. In fact, that’s worse. The more religious among us might even argue that praying is a far more effective way of achieving results than simply calling for something. Anyway, these are clearly not the type of relations that should be encouraged by the Department of International Relations and Co-operation, but perhaps Clayson has a future in the Department of Justice.

The harsh lesson that Clayson had to learn was that with social media – unlike with traditional media – one cannot simply claim they were misquoted, quoted out of context, or that a news story was simply a figment of the imagination of some evil hack.

Of course, the might of social media is no obstacle for some of our more militant leaders. Former comrade Julius Malema was prepared to go to war and shut down Twitter when it ticked him off. Fortunately, he got distracted planning his Blitzkrieg against Botswana. Twit.

Happy reading!

Martin Czernowalow