South Africans have lambasted ANC politician, Buti Manamela, after he posted an image of a child on social media on Thursday afternoon.
But Manamela, who is the Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training, said that when he took the photo, he didn't see anything wrong with it.
"It's quite unfortunate that although some people saw the beauty of a child posing with an ANC T-Shirt that his mother gave to him (after it was handed to the mother by one of our volunteers), other people saw it as offensive. The matter is closed now, as far as I’m concerned. The image was of a minor dressed in an adult ANC T-shirt," he said.
The tweet, which he posted after campaigning door to door in Nantes, Eesterust ahead of the elections, was quickly deleted after South Africans called the politician to order.
(Buti Manamela, Twitter)
"Poor African child next to a shiny black German SUV, #NewDawn indeed," Twitter user Dumisani Nsibande said in response to the image.
Another user, Zakes, asked whether Manamela had obtained permission to publish images of minors.
Manamela claimed children were chanting "vote ANC" while following party members and he decided to take the "humbling" picture.
The politician has since replaced the tweet with a different image.