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Cancel culture 101: Navigating the business of social media
Floyd Shivambu deletes embarrassing tweet exposing his terrible maths
Twitter has had a field day mocking the EFF deputy leader after he seemed not to realise that 'every year' and 'annually' are the same things.
FILE PICTURE: EFF deputy president Flyod Shivambu before addressing members at Jack Botes Hall in Polokwane, 2 August 2015. Picture: Nigel Sibanda
EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu’s tweet in which he attempted to take issue with a statistic proffered by talk radio host and writer Eusebius McKaiser rapidly backfired on Friday morning.
He wrote: “All of us must unite against GBH [grievous bodily harm] & toxic masculinities. We should also be factual on basic stats. If 1,095 women are killed every year in SA, it means the number is 399 675 annually. That’s ridiculously & logically FALSE because OVERALL annual murder rate in SA is approx 20 000.”
McKaiser had written that, according to the latest crime stats, 1,095 women are killed every year at the hands of their partners in South Africa.
1,095 women are killed every year at the hands of their partners in South Africa.
There simply is #NoExcuse for women abuse.
I choose to honour the lives of these women sharing my #16SecondsofSilence pledge – to do better to smash the toxic masculinities that fuel violence. pic.twitter.com/0MKSHKPTq8
— Eusebius McKaiser (@Eusebius) December 7, 2018
For some reason, Shivambu hadn’t realised that “every year” in fact means “annually”. He appeared to have read McKaiser’s tweet as meaning 1,095 women are killed every day (since 1,095 multiplied by 365 gives you 399,675) – though it’s unclear how he came to this misjudgment.
The website Politwoops kept a record of his tweet from Friday morning here.
Floyd Shivambu’s deleted tweet.
The reactions, predictably, were brutal, especially considering that Shivambu prides himself on his intellectualism and the fact that he’s on his way to getting a PhD. He also recently made fun of John Steenhuisen for only having a matric qualification.
Take a look at some of the reactions below:
Maths is showing Shivambu flames. pic.twitter.com/RDHKlVJIho
— Andries Moseamedi (@DruserAndries) December 7, 2018
Floyd Shivambu seems to be lost in space on this one, but this is a common problem,,,when someone misunderstands and then goes to form a premise based on false understanding https://t.co/BDVArtpSKS
— Gugulethu (@MadiggaKM) December 7, 2018
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/AFRaF1c0FQ
— Mbathane Matshaya 🇿🇦 (@MbataneMatshaya) December 7, 2018
Well now.
I guess this explains those Canadian account numbers doesn't it. https://t.co/EYL27r4SYH
— Ad Homonym (@jean_leroux) December 7, 2018
Maths have no friend. Who hacked Floyd Shivambu’s account. 😔 😢 😭 😂 pic.twitter.com/Da3qZH8Dpy
— Man’s NOT Barry Roux (@AdvoBarryRoux) December 7, 2018
Shivambu and Julius celebrating their Maths paper pic.twitter.com/tl60lTNAej
— simaxis (@simaxis) December 7, 2018
Floyd Shivambu (EFF), graduate…. 30% maths pass rate? pic.twitter.com/ILvCNR2y4N
— Danie Malan (@Danie_Malan) December 7, 2018
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