Yahoo News
S
outh Africa’s Nelson Mandela is now on Twitter, after his foundation convinced a British man to hand over the @NelsonMandela account, his office said Monday.
Online consultant Richard Millington had registered the account but agreed to give it to the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, part of a foundation established by the anti-apartheid icon.
“Mr Millington did not hesitate when we contacted him last week requesting that we take over the page he had created,” said Sello Hatang, spokesman for the Mandela Foundation.
Since the Centre of Memory took over the account on Friday, it bears the Nelson Mandela Foundation logo and has won 727 followers who receive updates with key dates in the life of South Africa’s first black president.
“18 April 1986 Nelson Mandela watches the film ‘Missing’ in Pollsmoor Prison,” read one tweet from Monday.
“On the 17th of April 1962 Nelson Mandela attends the National Assembly of Sierra Leone and meets various Members of Parliament,” read Sunday’s tweet.
Hatang said about 20 different social media networks had accounts created by people around the world using Nelson Mandela’s name, including Facebook and Flicker.
“We would like to encourage others who hold domains using Nelson Mandela?s name to hand them over to the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory,” he said.
It was unclear why Millington had registered the account, but on Monday he tweeted: “The Nelson Mandela foundation just thanked me for handing over the @nelsonmandela twitter account. I forgot I had it.”
