South African education official’s novel approach to encourage reading by tweeting pictures of scantily clad women holding books leads to inevitable backlash

• Elijah Mhlanga has been part of the Read to Lead campaign for three years
• Users were shocked at his appeal aimed at young adults and school children
• The sultry adverts were branded as being ‘demeaning, sexist and thoughtless’

A South African education official has been forced to apologise after he tweeted pictures of scantily clad women holding books in an attempt to encourage reading.

Elijah Mhlanga, a spokesperson for the Department of Basic Education, posted the images online in an attempt to ‘push the boundary’.

One picture was of a woman with oiled breasts and a low cleavage holding a book in her lap and another was of a semi-dressed couple looking down at a novel.

Mhlanga inevitably faced overwhelming backlash from social media users who were stunned that he had used the images for a campaign aimed at young adults and school children.

Elijah Mhlanga, a spokesperson for the Department of Basic Education in South Africa, posted the pictures in an attempt to ‘push the boundary’ to promote the literacy campaign

One picture was of a woman with oiled breasts and a low cleavage with a book in her lap which led social media users to brand it as being ‘demeaning, sexist and thoughtless’

Another controversial tweet included a picture of a semi-dressed couple looking down at a novel which was also criticised as being ‘totally inappropriate’ 

Twitter user @Tzoro1 commented on one of the pictures and said: ‘I cannot believe that in this day and age we allow such demeaning, sexist, thoughtless and chauvinistic adverts to be what is meant to inspire young people to read, no wonder we are not winning the war against illiteracy at all levels of society.’

Another, @amnestyshenilla, added that it was ‘totally inappropriate’ 

Mr Mhlanga has since deleted the controversial tweets and apologised online to ‘sensitive viewers’ for his actions.

He wrote: ‘On Saturday, I posted a series of tweets about the Department’s Read To Lead Campaign aimed at promoting reading amongst young adults and people of school going age and society in general.

‘I have noted that one image in particular may have offended sensitive viewers. 

‘This however, was not the intention and we strongly reject any view to that effect. 

‘To those I disappointed and indeed those of you who are offended by the use of the images I apologise.’

He added that ‘contemporary audiences that consume media tend to be open about sex and sexuality’.

The tweets had been part of the education department’s Read to Lead Campaign which has been running for the past three years.

In 2016 South Africa was ranked last out of 50 countries in a literacy study that tested primary school students for reading comprehension, according to Africa’s Mail and Guardian newspaper.  

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