ANC's Duarte tweets

In a first for African National Congress (ANC) spokesperson Jessie Duarte, she was allowed only 140 letters to reply to questions from the public in an interactive session on the micro-blogging website Twitter on Friday.

“You’ve got to keep your answers short,” Duarte joked afterwards, saying she had received 20 questions in the session that lasted a little more than an hour.

The website does not allow messages longer than 140 characters.

Duarte’s answers were short—but covered a long list of issues, ranging from sports quotas, corrupt government officials and crime, to solar power and the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV.

She vowed that the “incoming ANC govt [sic] will act against under-performance starting at the top”.

On the ANC position on sports quotas, she replied: “Until our teams are representative, quotas are important. But needs to be accompanied by investment in training and facilities for the youth.”

Duarte dismissed “allegations that South Africa’s media will be curtailed”, in a question posted by a user, as a “scare tactic”.

Asked afterwards who the ANC had wanted to reach through the Twitter debate, Duarte said those who participated in this debate “sounded like fairly young people and it seems as if these are people who are employed”.

“It’s fine.

We want to reach every South African. We reached those 20 people,” she said.

“The Twitter debates are always interesting,” added Duarte, who said she had been participating for the first time.

But not all users agreed with her.

One posted a comment halfway through the session: “The ANC’s Twitter ‘debate’ offers all the proof you need that it is possible to send someone to sleep in 140 characters or less.”—Sapa