The buzz on South Africa’s elections has been heating up lately, with overseas voting already in progress and speculation brewing on whether the newest party, COPE, can make a dent in the ANC’s traditional dominance.

Today, this buzz moved to a new platform as the ANC opened a “debate” on the social networking platform Twitter.  For approximately two hours, Jessie Duarte, an ANC spokeswoman, took and answered questions from Twitter users under the account @ANC_Debate.

During the conversation, about 25 questions were answered on topics ranging from the economy to crime to HIV prevention.  This was a small fraction of the number of questions asked, meaning that Duarte had the opportunity to select the questions to which she would respond.

Not all of the questions selected by @ANC_Debate were entirely benign, although most squared with what are probably standard talking points by now.  @lizzylivd asked, “Apart from election talks, the ANC has generally been seen as "anti-white". Why should the people believe otherwise?”  @danieljacobs inquired, “What is the ANC's opinion on the general public's perception that the ANC = the government?”

(By the way, the answers were, respectively: “ANC is the foremost champion of non-racialism. It has consistently fought for a South Africa that belongs to all who lives in it”; and “It's understandable but ANC makes clear distinction between party & state. Govt must deliver to people, while ANC must mobilise people to direct delivery.”)

@ANC_Debate is not the first case of South African political engagement on Twitter.  Helen Zille, head of the Democratic Alliance and mayor of Cape Town tweets at @helenzille with 1,658 followers and COPE is on at @VoteCOPE, although it only has 85 followers.  @ANC_Debate, for the record, has 303 followers.

While it is nice to see political parties reaching out to their constituents, and interesting to watch them attempt it on Twitter, I wonder if this isn’t a case of Shiny Object Syndrome for the ANC.  Does this conversation on Twitter actually increase engagement in any substantive way?

I don’t have an answer, but will raise a few questions:

1)    Who is the ANC targeting using Twitter?  Everywhere in the world, including the United States where Twitter is at its most popular, the Twitter community is dominated by elites and early adapters – those with access to technology and the skills and leisure to use it.  Does a Twitter debate target elites at the exclusion of the masses? 

That said, perhaps this was a strategic move by the ANC to target an elite group who feels increasingly ignored by that party and has moved over to COPE or DA.

2)    Is the ANC hoping the election conversation will go international?  Twitter is a global platform, with most of its usership concentrated in the US, Europe and developed Asia.  Is convincing the international community now as important as convincing your own citizens?  How does the conversation change when it goes global and is this better or worse for domestic voters and the political parties themselves?

I should point out that, of the 25 questions answered today, most if not all were from users actually located in South Africa.

3)    What is the value of answers written in 140 characters?  I am a huge proponent of Twitter and think that it is an invaluable source of connections and information.  But, does it add value in this case?  Most people in South Africa are probably familiar with the ANC’s policy positions already.  A 140 character recap of the standard positions (140 characters is about 1 sentence) can’t really tell you anything deeper.

@ANC_Debate admitted that this was a pilot initiative that will likely evolve.  One user suggested answering questions in more depth on a blog for the next time around.  By the way, Jessie indicated that there will be a next time around – next Friday.

• For those interested in information about South Africa's elections, VOA's Africa News Tonight has been running a feature series examining the parties and their chances in the election.