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.

Figure 1.3: A collection of tweets talking about the South African government. 

We can see in these tweets how many people support or resonate with each tweet by looking at the number of likes, comments and retweets. People are using the space to not only share their own experiences but also to connect with other people and see their experiences and read what their thoughts are. They are able to use the platform to make decisions and form opinions based on information sharing. 

A similar process was happening on TikTok, although the platform works differently than twitter. People used the platform in a similar way for example a video by a user named Quin [1]. This user made a video in which he expressed his feelings about not only the cost of living in South Africa but also how poorly he feels the government has been handling the situation. This video was posted 19 May 2022 and in September 2022 it currently has 18 000 likes, 2000 comments and has been shared 1600 times. Many people who commented on the video agreed with the points the creator was making, many of them expressing their difficulties as well and using the video as a call to action, with comments shown below in figure 1.4 “I don’t care how divided we are we should strike to keep petrol at the same price” and “Why can’t we March against Fuel Prices''. What this video is showing us is how this situation may not be possible without the use of social media platforms, to have 18 000 people from different parts of South Africa to not only listen to an ordinary person's points but also agree with them would be impossible without social media.

Figure 1.4: Some comments left on the tiktok video by User named Quin

People on most social media platforms called for a national shut down. At this stage it was not planned correctly and not many people participated but many felt the need and understood why people felt it was necessary to take some action. This call to action was often accompanied by the hashtag #nationalshutdown. However, it was only in August of 2022 when SAFTU and COSATU organised a legal ‘national shut down’ protest, which was held on 24 August 2022. In a press conference held a few days before the protests were scheduled SAFTU’s general-secretary Zwelinzima Vavi explained why they have chosen to organise this protest and appealed to the people living in South Africa to join, he says: “Our national shutdown is organised to show our working class that the only way is to fight back. We are calling for a general strike, a stay away and a general strike of all workers both ordinary workers and professional workers of white and black workers of the middle class, and the unemployed people who are concerned about the future of our country and the future of our people to join us.” (Naidoo,2022). 

As mentioned before in the method section, Twitter can be useful to stay informed about what is happening during the protests and also to express your thoughts and feelings about issues that protesters are trying to address. In this case the #Nationalshutdown was used to keep track of what was happening, as well as an opportunity to question the protest organisers. In figure 1.5 are examples of tweets of people expressing their support of the protests as well as sharing information about what was happening. Through these tweets we can see people either showing their support for the protests or criticising the protests. Either way through the use of twitter in this case people were informed about what was going on, they were able to see live updates such as where exactly the protests are and what responses they were getting from officials as seen below in figure 1.5 images of the minister in the presidency Mondli Gungubele accepting the memorandum of demands.

Figure 1.5: a collection of tweets showing how users used the #nationalshutdown to give opinion and stay up to date with the protest. 

Influence, Outcomes, and Effects

Although the protest action did not have the effect that SAFTU and COSATU wanted, which was a complete ‘shutdown’ of South Africa, they were able to hand over a memorandum of demands, appealing to the government to handle the situation better and help the people living in South Africa. These demands include a basic income grant of R1500, the rebuilding of a functioning public transport system, and an end to interest rate hikes (Daily Maverick, 2022). On the 6th of September 2022, the South African government made an announcement that they would be holding a cabinet meeting to discuss possible relief packages to help combat the increasing cost of living (Business Tech, 2022a). As of 26 September, this meeting was not held yet and there has not been an announcement made regarding the issue. Since the protests on 24 August, many smaller protests have taken place to address the same issues of the cost of living in South Africa.

Many of the issues addressed in the protests are still ongoing therefore many of the conversations held on Twitter and other social media platforms are still ongoing. This case focuses only on one issue in South Africa but it should be noted that social media as a platform for individuals to share their thoughts and opinions about different issues are always happening throughout the world. 

Analysis and Lessons Learned

This case study deals with an important democratic dimension for quality democracy as shown by Diamond and Morlino, namely participation. This section will provide an analysis of the case study in relation to the literature discussed in the methods section as well as the democratic dimension of participation. Lastly this section will discuss lesions that can be learnt from this case study. 

According to Diamond and Morlino (2005) all democracies have to grant the basic right of political participation in the form of voting to all citizens. However for a democracy to be a good democracy it must also that there is a formal right allowed to citizens to not only vote but also “organize, assemble, protest, lobby for their interests “and be able to “influence the decision making progress” (Diamond and Morlino, 2005, p XVI). Diamond and Morlino (2005) says that participation can be considered high when citizens actively participate by joining political parties and civil society organizations. Citizens can also participate by having public discussions and engaging with different issues both at a national or local level, holding public officials and representatives accountable for their political actions (Diamond and Morlino, 2005). Diamond and Morlino (2005) states that participation can be measured by the extent to which citizens can express themselves on issues and how often they communicate with the government and elected officials.

The theory of public space closely links to the democratic dimension of participation as it allows citizens to have public discussions about issues faced in the state. This case study has shown that social media can be a powerful tool and act as the new public sphere whether it is to call people together to take action or if it is to let out your frustration with political matters in South Africa. The literature above in the methods section shows how social media practices have the potential to challenge traditional notions of citizenship therefore allowing citizens to participate in a new way. Social media in South Africa has therefore increased the potential for citizens participating in some aspects. 

In this case through the sharing of information, opinions and grievances as well as debate about the issue, methods used and the actors involved which as shown by Bohler-Muller and van der Merwe (2010) is what a traditional ‘public sphere’ embodies. This case has also shown that many people were able to contribute to the conversations and not just the elites which would traditionally be the main voices heard. Through the use of Twitter in this case anyone with an internet connection could contribute or observe the views of others. This case shows a good use of what Sanchez (2015) above noted as online activists, although many people did not participate in the protests, many people added their voices to the conversation. This case shows that many people were online activists because they made a large contribution to the broader conversation about the issue online. For this case it is clear that the use of social media was far more instrumental and important for this issue than the protests itself as this is where most people participated and felt as if they were part of something bigger. 

As mentioned above in the literature the use of hashtags are important to mobilise a people, in this case, there were many hashtags used, such as #slashfuelprices #PetrolDieselPriceHike #nationalionshutdown and this may have also led to the reason why this case did not inspire many people to participate in the physical protest. Many of these hashtags are generic and have been used in many different contexts, #fuelincrese has been used in many different countries to discuss the increase of fuel, it has also been used by governments to announce the increase of fuel prices. As mentioned above #slashfuelprices was created by a political party, therefore because of this affiliation to a particular party people may have felt that it was a tool used by this party to gain notoriety and try to promote themselves to further this point as explained above by Konnelly (2015) people who do not identify with certain hashtags will not necessarily use them. The hashtag #nationalshutdown also had some issues as it is a hashtag that is often used by many protest movements throughout the world. Therefore a key lesson in this case is that, to mobilise people using hashtags, it should be a phrase that is not used for other issues and should not be a phrase created by a political party. 

In this case, although many participated in the online discussions not many participated in the physical protests. This may be due to political parties and trade unions that gained notoriety and actually organised a protest, therefore this could be seen as the biggest weakness of this case. Even though people were clearly upset with the current living conditions in South Africa, there was not an overall unity that could drive them to take action as had occurred in previous similar cases, such as #feemustfall and #blacklivesmatter.  

A key lesson learnt from this case is social media can be a key to increasing public participation thus being able to strengthen the quality of democracy in a given state. In this case there were not many people in the physical protest and the intended outcome did not happen, however it is clear that there is power in the voice of people and that in the new age of social media this voice continues to be amplified. 

References

Business Tech. (2022a). Government looking at ‘relief package’ to deal with cost of living crisis in South Africa: report. [online] Available at: https://businesstech.co.za/news/government/623043/government-looking-at-relief-package-to-deal-with-cost-of-living-crisis-in-south-africa-report/.



BusinessTech (2022b). Why it’s too soon to celebrate South Africa’s job numbers: economists. [online] Business Tech. Available at: https://businesstech.co.za/news/business/619405/why-its-too-soon-to-celebrate-south-africas-job-numbers-economists/ [Accessed 17 Sep. 2022].

Daily Maverick (2022). WEDNESDAY NATIONAL SHUTDOWN: SA largely ignores union calls for mass stayaway — but concerns ‘fair and factual’, admits government. [online] Daily Maverick. Available at: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-08-24-sa-largely-ignores-union-calls-for-mass-stayaway-but-concerns-fair-and-factual-admits-government/ [Accessed 25 Sep. 2022].

Davis, R. and Moodley, N. (2022). RISING EXPENSES: Cost of living in SA reaches critical highs for rich and poor alike. [online] Daily Maverick. Available at: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-08-31-cost-of-living-in-sa-reaches-critical-highs-for-rich-and-poor-alike/ [Accessed 10 Sep. 2022].

Davis, R. (2022). EXPLAINER: What is Wednesday’s national trade union shutdown all about? [online] Daily Maverick. Available at: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-08-22-what-is-wednesdays-national-shutdown-all-about/ [Accessed 19 Sep. 2022].

Mitchley, A. and Magubane, K. (2022). Saftu, Cosatu vow national shutdown just the beginning of mobilisation for their demands. [online] News24. Available at: https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/saftu-cosatu-vow-national-shutdown-just-the-beginning-of-mobilisation-for-their-demands-20220824 [Accessed 17 Sep. 2022].

Naidoo, S. (2022). Saftu calls on all South Africans to join national shutdown on Wednesday. [online] SABC News - Breaking news, special reports, world, business, sport coverage of all South African current events. Africa’s news leader. Available at: https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/saftu-calls-on-all-south-africans-to-join-national-shutdown-on-wednesday/ [Accessed 18 Sep. 2022].

Rossouw, J. (2022). What’s driving the surge in South Africa’s fuel price. [online] The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/whats-driving-the-surge-in-south-africas-fuel-price-185302.

Notes

[1] Link to tiktok video: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMFJbVN8Y/