Democracy Reports

Online conversations about corruption in South Africa

This social media analytics report focused on corruption conversations in South Africa covering the period 01 May 2023 – 30 June 2023. The report found that the online corruption conversation can be divided into two broad camps i.e. the radical economic transformation (RET) network who do not acknowledge state capture and are ardent Jacob Zuma …

Online conversations about corruption in South Africa Read More »

Anti-corruption project: Online conversations about corruption in South Africa

This social media analytics report focused on corruption conversations in South Africa covering the period 01 May 2023 – 30 June 2023. The report found that the online corruption conversation can be divided into two broad camps i.e. the radical economic transformation (RET) network who do not acknowledge state capture and are ardent Jacob Zuma …

Anti-corruption project: Online conversations about corruption in South Africa Read More »

Protest Narrative Deep Dive Report

#Nationalshutdown trended on Twitter in January. It was primarily used as a tool to gain public support to stand up against a tariff increase. However, it also became an opportunity to drive a political agenda. We explore this in our Calls for mobilisation report. Read full report

ANC elective conference news media coverage

The ANC is less than a week away from its national elective conference. Earlier this month, the CABC released a report that investigated the scope of conversation on Twitter around four presidential candidates; Lindiwe Sisulu, Zweli Mkhize, Cyril Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. In this report, we analysed how three South African media houses reported on …

ANC elective conference news media coverage Read More »

ANC elective conference – Presidential candidates on social media

The 55th ANC elective conference is only a few days away. In view of this, researchers at the CABC zoomed in on the online campaigns of ANC presidential hopefuls – Cyril Ramaphosa, Zweli Mkhize, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Lindiwe Sisulu.The aim of this report is to analyse the candidates’ online presence, the policy and/or character differences …

ANC elective conference – Presidential candidates on social media Read More »

Periodic Report 5

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 …

Periodic Report 5 Read More »

#PhalaPhalaFarmGate: Manufacturing dissent

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 …

#PhalaPhalaFarmGate: Manufacturing dissent Read More »

Periodic Report

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 …

Periodic Report Read More »