Problems and Purpose

Social media in South Africa is often used to incite public participation in the form of protests and to hold the government accountable for. The first use of social media in this way was in 2015 when student led protest #Rhodesmustfall and #feesmustfall, in which students were able to organize and discuss issues they faced. Both of these movements were somewhat successful and for both of the movements Twitter is often praised as the main tool that contributed to the success. After seeing the success of these movements many South African citizens started using social media platforms to voice their opinion about important social and political issues in South Africa. Therefore in 2022 when the cost of living in South Africa increased to the point citizens felt was unbearable they took to Twitter. The hashtag ‘#NationalShutdown’ was used by many on twitter as a call to protest the issue. In August of 2022, the calls were heard by trade union federations, South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) and Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), who organized and led protests in Cape Town and Pretoria as well as eight other major South African cities (Davis, 2022). However, although on Twitter and other social media platforms the hashtag was popular and many people were expressing their views about the rising cost of living in South Africa, not name people participated in the physical protests. This case aims to discover the role social media plays in public participation, as it is clear it is able to get people talking but not always able to get citizens to participate in active protests. 

Background History and Context

• Social Media 

Social media recently in South Africa has been a great tool in fostering political participation from the youth. The first sign of the importance of social media was during the #Rhodesmustfall and #feesmustfall movements. The Rhodes Must Fall campaign at the University of Cape Town was a student-led protest movement that demanded that the statue of colonialist Cecil John Rhodes be removed from the university's main campus (Bosch, 2017). This protest sparked a larger student political movement that demanded that the university's curriculum be ‘decolonized’ (Bosch, 2017). Following the Rhodes Must Fall campaign, the Fee Must Fall campaign was launched in 2015 to protest the increase in university tuition fees across South Africa (Bosch, 2017). Both of these campaigns used social media, notably Twitter, to organise themselves as well as have conversations and debates about the issues they were confronting (Bosch, 2017).

Using social media to express frustration is not a new or uncommon phenomenon, as mentioned above, in South Africa youth used social media as a tool to start movements, the same has been in many different parts of the world pertaining to many different social and political situations. For example to the ‘#Blacklivesmatter’ movement and the ‘#Metoo’ movement which both started on twitter as well. 

• Cost of Living Crisis in South Africa

In 2022 the economic situation compared to previous years in most of the world is dire as many agree that the impact of disrupted global supply chains caused by Covid-19, as well as the Russian invasion of Ukraine is felt by many countries. However in South Africa this situation is exacerbated due to the high unemployment rate, the increasing inflation rates and the decrease in gross domestic product (GDP). According to Statistics South Africa in August of 2022, for the second quarter of the 2022/2023 financial year the unemployment rate was set at 33.9% showing a small decrease of 0.6% from the first quarter’s rate (BusinessTech, 2022). Although this rate did decrease unemployment still affects many people in South Africa. According to the chief economist Isaah Mhlanga at AlexForbes, when we look at the types of jobs people are getting we can see that they are mainly part-time jobs and not full time employment therefore the current unemployment rate may not be a true reflection of the lived realities of South Africans, as the employment South Africans acquire is often unstable (BusinessTech, 2022b). 

Another contributing factor to the increase of the cost of living today in South Africa is the ever-increasing inflation rate. In the report released by Statistics South Africa on 24 August 2022 it shows that consumer inflation currently is at 7,8% which is the highest it has been since the 2009 recession. Figure 1.1 puts this in perspective (Davis and Moodley, 2022). According to Davis and Moodley (2022) the cost of a litre of petrol has risen by 56.2% within one year. The underlying reason the cost of fuel is high is because of the cost of crude oil, however added to that cost is a number of levies and taxes (Rossouw, 2022). Rossouw (2022) explains that there are two important levies, first the fuel levy which is 20% of the retail price and the road accident fund levy which is 11%. Investigations done by the Daily Maverick in 2022 shows that in the past five years the cost of basic household goods such as bread rose by R8 from R10.40 (0.59 USD) in 2017 to R17.99 (1.02 USD) in 2022 (Davis and Moodley, 2022). Through all of this it is clear why many South Africans felt the need to talk about their challenges living in South Africa.  

Figure 1.1: South African consumer price inflation from Jan 2009 to June 2022. (Stats SA, 2022) 

Organizing, Supporting, and Funding Entities

Although this case is about many people using twitter as a public space, there are often Twitter accounts or tweets that would go viral and spark a conversion. A key account that added to the conversations was popular South African Twitter account @advoBarryRoux. The account is named after a famous South African lawyer, however the account explicitly says they are not affiliated with Advocate Barry Le Roux. The current owner of this account is also unknown however they gained popularity by making social commentary on important and relevant issues in South Africa. This account has been on twitter since March of 2014 and currently has 1.7 Million followers. In their bio they claim that they are the ‘Voice Of The Voiceless and Stand With The Marginalised.’

Many South African political parties also added their concerns to the conversation such as the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) as well as many other smaller political parties. The DA created the hashtag #Slashfuelprices, which was used by many people regardless if they supported the political party or not. Many other hashtags were also used by many people when talking about the cost of living in South Africa such as #PetrolDieselPriceHike and #gatvol (fed up). The most popular hashtag during this time however was #Nationalshutdown, this hashtag was used to call people to protest the issue of the increased cost of living in South Africa. 

Noticeably though, before August of 2022 the trade union federations, South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) and Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) did not add much to the conversations online. However, they were responsible for the physical protests that took place, both trade unions organised and led the protests that took place in Cape Town and Pretoria as well as eight other major South African cities (Davis, 2022). They were also became the spokespeople and the faces of #Nationalshutdown as both federations held press conferences and had interviews on various news channels, encouraging people living in South Africa to join their protests.

Participant Recruitment and Selection

Twitter was the third most popular social media site in South Africa in 2015, after Facebook and Youtube, with 7.4 million active users (Bosh, 2017). Twitter was founded in October 2006, and according to Murthy (2013), it allows users to maintain a public web-based dialogue by sending messages, known as ‘tweets,' in 140 characters or less (although this has recently changed to 280). Tweets are public posts which mean that any other Twitter user is able to see them. According to Murthy (2013), Twitter provides effective methods for linking tweets to broader themes, individual people, and groups. Murthy (2013) says that Twitter is a microblogging platform that allows users to broadcast brief, regular bursts of content to a large audience outside of their direct contacts. Because of this it is easy for many people to join in the conversation. In this case there are no specific people or organisations who spoke out but rather everyday ordinary people living in South Africa, therefore it was possible for many people to join in the conversation and express their opinion about the cost of living.  

National trade union federations SAFTU and COSATU tried to mobilise thousands of their members to protest (Davis and Moodley, 2022). On the day of the protests 5 000 people gathered outside the South African Union Buildings which is the official seat of the South African Government as well as the presidential office (Mitchley and Magubane, 2022). 

Methods and Tools Used

The main tool that was used was social media, specifically Twitter. This section will outline different ways in which Twitter can be used as a tool for participation by the general public. Methods outlined in this section include Twitter as a public sphere, digital activism and hashtag activism. 

Social media platforms fared better at expressing the views of people living in South Africa because, according to recent research, South Africans spend more time on social media than they do on television, radio, or reading newspapers (GlobalWebIndex, 2019). According to GlobalWebIndex in 2019, South Africans spend an average of seven hours per day consuming digital media and only four and a half hours consuming traditional media. On social media individuals can communicate with each other, therefore there is a two-way conversation whereas with traditional media individuals cannot reply, or if they do reply there is no certainty that others will see the response (Roy. 2016). Therefore social media can act as a public space or sphere. 

As noted by Bohler-Muller and van der Merwe (2010) the term ‘public sphere’ traditionally refers to marketplaces or town halls where communities gather to discuss their common grievances. Because it fosters social interaction and information sharing, social media now functions as the new 'public sphere' (Bohler-Muller and van der Merwe: 2010). Bosch (2016) says that in South Africa, Twitter has provided a chance for a new kind of citizenship characterised by more individualised forms of action outside of the political party world, and thus social media practices have the potential to challenge traditional notions of citizenship. Carney (2016) notes that social media as a public sphere can give previously disadvantaged communities the opportunity to gain some power over the public discourse where they can express their experiences and viewpoints. Daniels (2016) adds that social media, particularly Twitter is contributing to more participation by citizens as social media is expanding and becoming more inclusive, and therefore strengthening the public space. Bonilla and Rosa (2015) add that Twitter gives the feeling of participation to users because users are able to comment or share their opinion with others. Limitations of this method of participation however is noted by Carney (2016) who says that Twitter can also be limited, as users can only use 140 characters (recently changed 280 characters) including spaces, therefore users have to think carefully as to what they say to effectively convey their message and capture the attention of others.

In South Africa it is important to note that there is a digital divide as noted by Daniels (2016) due to difficulties of access and economic inequality. However, according to Bosch (2016) despite the digital gap, Twitter is gaining traction in South Africa as a virtual platform for individuals to voice their dissatisfaction with current conditions. According to Bosch, Luescher, and Makhubu (2019), Twitter has grown in popularity as a platform for citizens to express themselves politically and build online communities. Kuo (2016) adds that Twitter's success among social justice movements stems from its ability to bring people together. Although the specific case is not a social justice movement in the traditional sense, social media platforms have allowed people to come together and discuss the matter of the cost of living in South Africa, in a way that would have been almost impossible without social media.  

The term digital activism is defined by Whyte (2010) as the practice of using digital technology, such as social media platforms, to increase the effectiveness of social or political change campaigns. According to Morozov (2013) there are two types of digital activism: Activism and Slacktivism. Similar to Whyte’s (2010) definition, activism according to Morozov (2013) is defined as organising tangible actions, such as sharing information on social media that will result in real world protest against social issues. Slackivism according to Morozov (2013) refers to people who engage in digital activism by simply sharing information online but never participate in face-to-face protests. However, Sanchez (2015) argues that digital activism is more complex than either of those definitions and that there are different types of levels of engagement within digital activism. Sanchez (2015) argues that not all Slacktivist actions are the same and that there are people within this group who do not take part in face-to-face protests but do a lot more than just share information online. Sanchez (2015) notes that this group of participants makes a large contribution to the broader conversation about social issues online as well as generate a high level of online engagement around the social issues. Therefore according to Sanchez (2015) there is a third type of digital activist known as an ‘Online Activist’, this is a social media user who helps facilitate tangible engagement and awareness online but does not always participate in physical protests. 

As discussed above the use of hashtags were also important for this case. A hashtag on Twitter acts as the simplification of a complex message in the form of a phrase that can resonate with people, in the context of social justice movements they can become a slogan of a movement as people would write them on posters and flyers, thus connecting people both online and offline (Kuo, 2016). Hashtags can also be used as a link to conversations that are happening on Twitter around a certain topic. Bonillla and Rosa (2015) add that the use of hashtags enables Twitter users to file and frame their comments to a certain topic. Konnelly (2015) notes that hashtags can act as markers of a collective group of people that share the same identity and views on a specific topic or issue, as people who do not identify with certain hashtags will not necessarily use them. Similarly Sharma (2013) says that the use of hashtags on Twitter enables people to centralise around a given topic. Kuo (2018) says that Twitter is designed to value group amplification, therefore the platform works well for mobilising people.

What Went On: Process, Interaction, and Participation

As mentioned above, in May of 2022, the first signs of the rising cost of fuel started and soon after that many other common household goods such as bread and meat went up too. In June of 2022 is when the prices skyrocketed and many people had their say. Many people used different social media platforms to express their frustration. As mentioned before different twitter hashtags were used by South Africans, below in figure 1.2 are some examples of what people had to say. 

Figure 1.2, a collection of tweets showing what people had to say. The twitter handle has been blacked out to protect the identities of the users. 

Many people also took the increasing cost of living as an opportunity to raise issues they have with the current South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and the current ruling political party the African National Congress (ANC). Figure 1.3 shows tweets where people tried to hold the government accountable for the current situation.