Nelson Mandela is now on Twitter, after his foundation convinced a British man to hand over the @NelsonMandela account, his office said Monday.
Online consultant Richard Millington had registered the account but was quick to hand the reins over to the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, part of a foundation established by the anti-apartheid icon, after they asked him nicely if he wouldn’t mind letting the Centre assume responsibility for the account.
“Mr Millington did not hesitate when we contacted him last week requesting that we take over the page he had created,” said Sello Hatang, spokesperson for the Mandela Foundation.
Since the Centre of Memory took over the account on Friday, it has borne the Nelson Mandela Foundation logo and won hundreds of followers who receive updates with key dates in Madiba’s life.
“On April 18 1986, Nelson Mandela watches the film ‘Missing’ in Pollsmoor Prison,” read a tweet from Monday.
“On April 17 1962, Nelson Mandela attends the National Assembly of Sierra Leone and meets various Members of Parliament,” read a tweet from Sunday.
Hatang said about 20 different social media networks had accounts created by people around the world using Nelson Mandela’s name, including Facebook and Flicker.
“We would like to encourage others who hold domains using Nelson Mandela’s name to hand them over to the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory,” he said.
It was unclear why Millington had registered the account, but on Monday he tweeted: “The Nelson Mandela foundation just thanked me for handing over the @nelsonmandela twitter account. I forgot I had it.”