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 #phalaphalafarmgate, which has been a top 10 hashtag within the democracy conversation for 10 weeks running. Other important themes for the period revolved around Kenya’s recent presidential election which saw Deputy President William Ruto become the President-elect. The Kenyan election was extensively covered by South African media houses. The final noteworthy theme involved the fatal protests in Tembisa at the beginning of August where residents of the township made their feelings known regarding rising electricity, rates, and taxes costs. The protests are believed to have caused damages to the tune of millions of rands.
by