The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) mobilised a protest on 20 March 2023 to demand electricity and to call for the...
Weekly Social Cohesion Report
The Challenge
What happens on public social media and in reality appear to be worlds apart. Conversations on social media contribute in constructive ways to the issues that affect our lives every day. It highlights peoples’ fears and aspirations, their wishes and desires, their anger and distrust. More importantly it tracks the social issues that have the potential to divide us, cause social upheaval and undermine South African society.
This report keeps track of these issues on social media and summarises the trending, highest impact, and most active themes and their narratives on public social media.
The CABC’s team of data analysts use online tools to track conversations daily on social media, and analyse the rich and useful data.
Project Objective
The Analysis of social media conversations support CABC projects to conduct their work. Current projects include countering xenophobia, digital narrative manipulation and countering misogyny.
An edited version of the report is published in mainstream media and available to the public, civil society organisations, government and other institutions who track issues of social cohesion in South Africa.
Published Reports

Daily Maverick OPINIONISTA: We need leaders who can help us find our way through the noise and despair and inspire hope
We limped out of the pandemic, shell-shocked and bamboozled, into a world that is overwhelming us with the ferocious velocity...

Smile 90.4FM OPINION: SA citizens not ‘entirely blameless’ – Smile 90.4FM
My only request is that we start acting on these plans. Government is unable to meet the expectations of citizens....

ANALYSIS | Camaren Peter: Are we seeing the rise of the right in SA? | News24
Camaren Peter argues we are seeing an emergence of both left- and right-wing populism in the South African political spectrum,...

Report highlights prominence of xenophobia |ZULULAND OBSERVER
The report mainly focuses on social media and the role it plays in xenophobic attacks. A recent report released by...

IOL: New report unpacks the online xenophobia conversation targeting foreigners
Cape Town – Research has found that the online anti-foreigner conversation continues to flourish, with proponents citing a number of...

The Citizen: More than 80% of online posts show negative sentiment for foreigners
The consensus in the online conversation remains that foreigners are one of, if not the main reason, South Africa is...

Daily Maverick OPINIONISTA: We the people have the power to forge the democracy we want — but it will require an active citizenry
We are all complicit — whether by fault or default — in the widescale collapse that is unfolding in South...

The same tool that is used to perpetuate misogyny, gender-based violence and inequality can be used to heal.
The same tool that is used to perpetuate misogyny, gender-based violence and inequality can be used to heal. Centre for...

heCareZa Social Media Analytics Report 1
This report details the interactions between men and women on South African Twitter between 20 November 2022 and 31 January...

Daily Maverick OPINIONISTA: We the people have the power to forge the democracy we want — but it will require an active citizenry
We are all complicit — whether by fault or default — in the widescale collapse that is unfolding in South...

Xenophobia – Social Media Analytics Report 1
This social media analytics report focused on xenophobic conversations in South Africa covering the period 01 January 2023 – 31...