From watching two tennis champions at the #MatchInAfrica to the insights developing amidst the Covid-19 global pandemic, the social media landscape in South Africa this year has been a place where the country has united in numerous ways. But as we enter June, the month of May has particularly been an interesting one for South African social media users. The global leaders in media intelligence, Meltwater, took a look at some of the top themes for the month of May to bring you the hottest topics that had social media buzzing.
With the new rebranding of the Miss South Africa organisation, thousands of hopefuls vying for the coveted Miss SA crown have been sharing their entry videos on social media since entries opened. In May, ‘#MissSA2020’ was mentioned in social media posts 41,000 times.
The first big spike in mentions recorded was on 18 May, when Twitter user @yonellamakalima shared her entry the night before. A total of 15.8 million people were engaging with the hashtag on this day as online users began retweeting the entrant’s video and contributing to the 61% of positive feelings that South Africans had for the overall ‘#MissSA2020’ hashtag.
Hope you make it to the top16 I will remember you and vote. Goodluck❤️ https://t.co/68QADHpgzN
— Momo (@Momo_fortunate) May 17, 2020
As online users expressed their opinions on these tweets, the ‘#MissSA2020’ hashtag, which had been receiving a general sense of positivity from the South African public from the third week of May as entries poured in, received its highest amount of negative feelings on the day, with 76% of social media mentions having a negative impact on ‘#MissSA2020’.
But overall, the hashtag has garnered some aspiring hopefuls, and some of the trending themes that have been associated with ‘#MissSA2020’ during May include:
After President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation on the new regulations under Level 3 on Sunday, 24 May 2020, there was one particular phrase from his speech that made its way to the top of the trending list on social media.
Following the announcement of South Africans now being able to buy liquor, ‘alcohol will be sold’ quickly trended that evening, reaching a total of 36 million people on social media. While many shared humorous tweets and posts on the topic, the prohibited sale of tobacco still emerged as a dominant theme, along with the ‘strict conditions’ that alcohol will be sold under, highlighting how some South Africans are still unhappy about the decision of maintaining the prohibition of tobacco products.
While 74% of online users shared their negative feelings about the selling of alcohol, in true South African style, the humour was not lost as social media was abuzz with South Africans celebrating the news.
South Africans don't deserve the internet ������
— Boipelo ���� (@peloz_) May 24, 2020
Alcohol will be sold �� pic.twitter.com/Chyc35g79T
South Africans have had to adjust to a new way of life under lockdown regulations as an effort to slow down the spread of the coronavirus.
During May, the #LockdownSouthAfrica hashtag was mentioned just under 14,000 times on social media, and on 24 May 2020, close to 16 million people were engaging with the hashtag following President Ramaphosa’s national address.
Some of the key moments that #LockdownSouthAfrica showed in May include:
During the third week of May, feelings around #LockdownSouthAfrica were at its most negative (64%) as online users shared more of their concerns around the regulations, particularly around the announcement of schools reopening in the middle of the pandemic.
Some of the top influential people and platforms, by social reach, speaking about #LockdownSouthAfrican includes ‘eNCAnews’ and ‘Uzalo on SABC 1’ on Facebook and @garethclliff and @Nandi_Madida on Twitter.
Following President Ramaphosa’s address on 24 May 2020, the #Level3Restrictions hashtag emerged and has since reached over 25 million people on social media. Since then, trending themes related to this hashtag have included:
It appears that Dlamini-Zuma lied to South Africans in her justification for the continued ban on the sale of cigarettes & other tobacco products. If this is indeed the case, then Ramaphosa has no choice but to fire her. -@jsteenhuisen#Level3Restrictionshttps://t.co/Ct88isdJCe
— Democratic Alliance (@Our_DA) May 29, 2020
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