Are you on Facebook?

Hillary Clinton, United States presidential candidate, was raised in a middle-class family in the middle of America — a classic suburban childhood, she says on her page on Facebook, the social networking website that has taken the world by storm. She was warmly welcomed in Oakland this week, where a crowd of 14 000 heard her speak. That’s about one-third of the number of supporters linked to her Facebook profile.

Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, not a South African presidential candidate, has an interest in beetroot and belongs to the ‘I love Castle Lager beer” discussion group on Facebook, where she also keeps a colourful collection of ‘drink icons”.

You’ll be forgiven for believing the latter if you are a Facebook newcomer who has not realised yet that South African politicians are far from hands-on when it comes to social networking. Their profiles are most likely the mere machinations of over-eager internet junkies. Just about the only player in the political or activism field who seems to have plunged headfirst into this online world is the Treatment Action Campaign’s Zackie Achmat, who already had a respectable 376 online friends earlier this week.

Still some high-profile names are all over the media but nowhere on Facebook, such as Jackie Selebi and Vusi Pikoli. The same goes for Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Mbhazima Shilowa, Bantu Holomisa, Pieter Mulder, Smuts Ngonyama, Douglas Gibson, Zwelinzima Vavi and many others.

But search for Thabo Mbeki and 10 different profiles appear, one with more than 180 ‘friends”. If the number of fake profiles is an indication of popularity or infamy, Robert Mugabe kicks dirt in Mbeki’s eyes: 30 profiles claim to belong to Bob. PW Botha reaches from beyond the grave (and has 51 friends) and Jacob Zuma weighs in with six profiles. All fake, of course, and some constructed rather cleverly. Did you know Eugene Terre’Blanche’s favourite music is the Soweto String Quartet?

Other politicians lack a profile, real or satirical, but enter Tokyo Sexwale’s moniker and no fewer than eight Sexwale appreciation groups appear, ranging from ‘Viva Tokyo” to ‘Tokyo Sexwale for SA’s president”. DA leader Helen Zille and Cyril Ramaphosa both have two fan clubs; Trevor Manuel and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka one each.

The sometimes innovative Patricia de Lille (does her SMS line still work?) has only one group, ‘Keep De Lille off the net!” — doubtlessly fallout from her remarks about the regu­lation of blogs earlier this year.

Elsewhere in the world Clinton, John Kerry and many other US politicians — and now Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt — have authentic profiles. So where are our own people?

Though more than 320 000 South Africans have signed up, the concept is still new to the country, says web researcher Arthur Goldstuck. ‘Our politicians are very nervous about a lack of control,” he says. ‘It’s key to remember that the jury is still out on the effectiveness of Web 2.0 applications [such as Facebook].”

South Africa’s politicos are tied to a traditional way of doing things, he says, and something new such as Facebook scares them. They might simply be too busy — ‘Where would I find the time to play on Facebook?” says the DA’s Diane Kohler-Barnard — while US politicians like Clinton have assistants who take care of such tasks.

Our users are ‘fairly immature” in using such social networks, says Goldstuck. But ‘I would highly urge South African politicians to get blogging,” he says — that, he believes, is where the real value lies, for now at least.

Still thousands of South Africans are signing up to Facebook and others like it. Online business entrepreneur Vinny Lingham wrote on the Mail & Guardian‘s ThoughtLeader.co.za recently: ‘The social revolution that is Facebook and other online networks means citizens can no longer be shut up by censoring newspapers or by an obstinate government.”

The ‘US Politics” application on Facebook is described as follows: ‘This application allows you to show your support for politicians, see who your friends support and interact on politician profiles. Over the course of the summer we’ll roll out more election features, including voter registration tools, political issue forums and our Election Pulse, showing how each race in 2008 is shaping up.”

How interesting would it have been to have a similar application charting the ANC succession race?