Our researchers focused on three thematic areas; namely the ANC Elective Conference, the Constitution, and Corruption. A significant part of the conversation revealed that social media users have an acute awareness of a faltering social contract in South Africa. Furthermore, after identifying some narrative manipulation, there is a clear trend of vested interests polarising and...
This report is a deep dive into the sustained prominence of #PhalaPhalaFarmGate within South Africa’s online democracy conversation. For the past 14 weeks, #PhalaPhalaFarmGate has been a top 10 trending hashtag within this conversation. Findings of this report over the period include #PhalaPhalaFarmGate being responsible for sustained anti-Ramaphosa sentiment since the beginning of June 2022...
This report forms part of a series of biweekly reports that track and summarise the key current narratives within South Africa’s online democracy conversation. This report’s date range is between 1 August and 18 August 2022. The most popular theme identified over the period includes sustained negative sentiment towards President Cyril Ramaphosa as evidenced by...
This report forms part of a series of biweekly reports that track and summarise the key current narratives within South Africa’s online democracy conversation. This report’s date range is between 11 July and 31 July 2022. The main themes identified over the period include sustained negative sentiment towards President Cyril Ramaphosa as evidenced by #cyrilmustresign...
This periodic report is the second in a series of bi-monthly reports that focus on conversations about foreign nationals in South Africa on social media. This report covers the date range of 1 to 15 July 2022. Key hashtags in the conversation were #operationdudula, #putsouthaficansfirst and #putsouthafricansfirst. Operation Dudula’s reach continued to grow during the...
This periodic report is the second of a series of biweekly reports that will track and summarise the key current narratives within South Africa’s online democracy conversation. This report’s date range is between 23 June and 10 July 2022. The main themes identified over the period include increasing growth in negative sentiment towards President Cyril...
This regular report for the month of June 2022 assesses conversations about foreign nationals on South African social media. Operation Dudula, a xenophobic campaign whose reach is growing continues to dominate the conversation. Aside from being an online campaign that focuses on influencing policy and implementation decisions, Operation Dudula also engages in paramilitary activities. This...
This periodic report is the first of a series of biweekly reports that will track and summarise the key current narratives within South Africa’s online democracy conversation. This report’s date range is between 8 June and 22 June 2022. The main themes identified over the period include youth unemployment dissatisfaction which was highlighted on Youth...
This report summarises all current and former narratives within South Africa’s online democracy conversation between January and May 2022. Five main focus areas were tracked within the broader democracy conversation. These include the judiciary and democratic institutions; the constitution; the upcoming ANC elective conference in December 2022; the RET network and corruption. The content sources...
In the first half of 2022, the extent of xenophobic content related to South Africa on social media increased. The most prominent hashtag in the conversation, #OperationDudula, is characterized by a negative sentiment directed toward foreigners. It appears that this may be a coordinated influence operation. On Nimmo’s breakout scale for measuring the impact of...
