Following his opening address for the International Knowledge Conference at the University of Stellenbosch Business School, former president, Thabo Mbeki voiced some concerns about Twitter as “a great conveyor of reliable knowledge,” pointing to Gaddafi’s overthrow as a consequence of “false knowledge,” rather than the social media. Mbeki immediately started trending on Twitter.

Mbeki didn’t deal with Twitter directly in his opening address, focusing instead on the “advancement of false knowledge” by groups with agendas, as the Western powers had apparently done in convincing the Libyan population that the Gaddafi regime was about to slaughter millions.

People generally don’t seem to be too upset by that claim.

They’re totally up in arms about his skepticism over Twitter, though, brought about after his address by a follow-up question;

I am skeptical about this notion of Twitter being that great conveyor instrument for the democratisation of knowledge
…
If you want to discuss knowledge which has got to do with the betterment of society I don’t think it is appropriate.Even the internet in general, blogging and so on, is not the place where you can… put all these things under theories.

And then there’s Trevor Noah’s attribution:

This has led people, mostly people on Twitter, to get either angry or amused or some mixture of the two. Because, you know, nothing makes news like things to do with newspapers. Or tends like things to do with Twitter. Take a look over here for the latest Mbeki tweets.

[Sources: TimesLive, iol]