Twitter MOB Comes For Loyiso Gola For Stating The Obvious

Twitter mob has unleashed its latest faux outrage on comedian Loyiso Gola for his comments regarding university fees protests. 

Gola caused a ruckus on Twitter by sharing a video with the caption "This dude is wearing R2000 sneakers". He followed that with a tweet that read; 

"I am just saying don't go to the protest about expensive things wearing expensive things. Qha!"

I would love to say the 'politically correct' mob responded but that would be an insult to political correctness, these Twitter mavericks are nothing but attention seeking rebel rousers. For the most part, they do not care about the issues. They just want to take on a celebrity. 

If they wanted to discuss the issue objectively they would engage Gola in a debate without insulting him and taking jabs at his career. That in itself is evidence of the motivation behind these Twitter faux outrages. They are driven by malice and intention to humiliate others especially celebrities. 

If these Tweeps really wanted to bring light to the issue of fees, they should be asking the government why subsidies for universities have declined in the past 3 years. They should be asking why is the government not putting money they spend on celebrating the governing party's birthdays onto education institutions. 

Apparently 60 - 70% of Wits students are on student aid or some form of funding. Is tertiary education expensive? YES. Should something be done about it? YES — but with that let the expectation not be that Universities should charge the same amount as FET colleges. 

People do not go to Harvard and expect to pay community college fees. Professors who work in Universities do not expect to be paid the same amount as those who work in colleges. For these universities to attract the skills and calibrè of educators that would make students compete at a level befitting their tertiary education standard, they have to charge more. 

What i read from Gola's comment is the same issue we face with service delivery protests in this country. The anger is always deferred and at times completely misplaced... Burn a clinic to get a school when you should be asking your government to be accountable since YOU gave them your vote. 

YOU would never walk into a financial aid institution wearing a R2000 sneaker and say you can't afford your fees, so how is it wrong that Gola would ask the same for the protester? 

Yes, maybe the guy was just there to support the protesters or whatever, BUT to lambast Gola and act as if his question was illogical speaks to the absurdity of people thinking Twitter has any legitimacy in influencing change. 

In the real world YOU probably would have asked the same question ... BUT because you are on Twitter and have been dying to take jabs at a celebrity or write a smug tweet, you just have to jump on the bandwagon. 

The sad reality is that media outlets, who have now become reliant on social media for content, will pickup the so called outrage and run with it. All the while the real issue of why the fees are going up will not be addressed. Dare we criticise the government!!

The story is not and should not be about Loyiso Gola. The story should be WHY in 2015 should higher education be such an expensive thing when we live in a country that can afford to spend hundreds of millions of rands on soccer spectacles and birthday parties. 

If universities say they can not run on the fees they charge and can prove it, why is the government not stepping in and saying; don't increase the fees, we will handle the shortfall?

If we going to be outraged, let the outrage be directed to people who can actually do something about change. How is dragging Gola going to change anything?

Free education in our lifetime, one placard read. How is that practical? How about addressing means and ways that could actually have real solutions to the problem.

Don't be fooled by the (as Gola put it) false power of Twitter. It is fuelled by the demagoguery that serves NOTHING either way to the cognitive dissonance that prevails in issues of change in Mzansi of late.