Twitter Blanket Drive: Why I No Longer Support Them

For many years, I supported the Twitter Blanket Drive across South Africa. While I lived in Johannesburg, I joined people on Twitter by encouraging people to donate blankets. Many of the people I had met at various Tweetups over the years made donations and supported the tweets. The community was strong and committed. And in 2016, I, along with Alan Straton, hosted the first Twitter Blanket Drive in the Eastern Cape, and more specifically in Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage, or Nelson Mandela Bay.

Melanie Minnaar, the founder of what she now calls TBDAfrica, also spoke at one of my Tweetups in Soweto once. She is a very smart and passionate marketing professional, originally from East London, living in Johannesburg. In recent years, she appointed a national co-ordinator for this annual blanket drive campaign, Merentia van der Vent, from Cape Town.

Since I moved back to South Africa after two years in Beijing, I once again offered to host the Twitter Blanket Drive in Nelson Mandela Bay. Since I offered to register their trademark, as well as a non-profit company, and host their website for the next 3 years as a sponsor. The website had been neglected for some time due to a dispute with someone called Attie van der Linde. Apparently, he refuses to “give up” control of the domain or website or both.

Email Transcript from National Co-Ordinator of Twitter Blanket Drive in South Africa