Former president Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma took to twitter on Saturday following some questions about the authenticity of his account. Zuma posted another video confirming that he is indeed behind the account.

Despite his controversies, Zuma remains popular among some South Africans, this is evident in the number of followers he has garnered since his inaugural tweet from Friday. In the space of 24 hours he has amassed 40 000 followers, with the account currently having more than 80 000 followers as of Saturday afternoon. This sets him up to become twitter’s newest celebrity, or “tweleb”.

The former president’s account follows some 500 people, with notables like comedians Trevor Noah and David Kau, ministers Gwede Mantashe and Tito Mboweni, DA leader Mmusi Maimane, and EFF leaders Malema and Floyd Shivambu. He also follows several journalists, many of whom are very critical of his time in the Union Buildings.

The former president has received a warm welcome from some notable tweeps. Former AfroWorld View owner, Mzwanele Manyi alerted people on twitter about the former statesman’s twitter account, tweeting “Dear Tweeps, guess who’s joined these streets…”and tagging Zuma’s handle.


EFF leader Julius Malema, who was one of Zuma’s harshest critiques during his presidency also welcomed the controversial leader with the simplest of tweets, “Welcome baba…”

Zuma took onto twitter with a video on Friday explaining why he has decided to join new media platforms Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.