With more than 2 million followers, Fikile Mbalula tops the list as one of the government's leading Twitter account holders.
The second most popular departmental account is that of the SAPS at 1 million followers, up from 889 000 in 2021.
Yet, Police Minister Cele, a controversial newsmaker by far, is not on Twitter.
According to Decode Communication's annual report on SA government leaders on Twitter, the government has significantly improved its use of the social media platform.
Decode revealed that the government's Twitter usage grew from 67% in 2021 to 72% last year.
"Mbalula is followed by President Cyril Ramaphosa, whose account has a healthy following of 2.5 million, up from 2.1 million the previous year – a whopping 20.25% growth," said Decode Communications CEO, Lorato Tshenkeng.
He said although all the top 10 government Twitter accounts showed growth in the year under review, all the other eight paled in numbers compared with Mbalula’s and Ramaphosa’s.
Tshenkeng said Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe, came a distant third at just over 500 000 while Minister of Public Works, Patricia De Lille continues to experience the least growth at 224 000 followers, up just 2% from 2021.
"Unlike in 2021, all the top 10 most followed accounts of Cabinet members and the top 10 most followed national departments in 2022 were verified. On the contrary, none of the 10 most followed accounts of Cabinet members’ spokespeople were verified," Tshenkeng said.
The report found that the majority of government spokespeople do not use Twitter for policy communication and promotion of messages of their departments and principals.
Tshenkeng said the report also noted that it was unfortunate that social media accounts of government leaders were not institutionalised.
"This is a missed opportunity for ministers like Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla and SAPS Minister Bheki Cele, both of whom are big newsmakers.
“Curiously, when it comes to departments, Transport does not feature in the top 10, proving that Mbalula’s followers are about the person more than the office.
“The Presidency’s account at 2.3 million followers, a 13.26% jump from 2021, pretty much mirrors that of the president," Tshenkeng added.
The report found that when it comes to provinces the leaders of the pack are Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi (400 000), former KwaZulu-Natal premier Sihle Zikalala (119 000), Gauteng Human Settlements MEC Lebogang Maile (65 000) and Limpopo Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba (53 000).
"Although there was a major breakthrough in more political leaders joining the platform compared with last year, citizens still witnessed many government communication professionals blurring the lines by conflating the party and state.
“This is one of the things that a young democracy such as ours must guard against by setting proper policies and standards to institutionalise and regulate the use of social media by government while not discouraging robust engagement," Tshenkeng said.
He said the North West, Mpumalanga and Free State governments feature poorly on Twitter.
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