South Africans couldn’t care less about the budget speech

The undercurrent of gatvolness in South Africa is likely to impact interest in Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s budget speech tomorrow.

According to netnographer and online analyst Carmen Murray, searches in anticipation of the address have dropped by almost 80% compared to interest in both the mid-term budget last year October and the 2021 February event.

To make matters worse, many South Africans have no idea who the current Minister of Finance is at all, based on Murray’s reviewed data sets.

Murray told The Citizen: “Searches for Gondongwana’s credentials seem to be top of mind followed by the usual suspects, Eskom, ‘the budget’, and the basic income grant. Curiously another SAA bailout has not featured much this year.”

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She added that waning interest in the budget from a search perspective, along with voter apathy and online activity around the municipal elections last year, is drawing a narrative that does not bode positively for the country.

Online sentiment measured using Meltwater tools and manual analytics, said Murray, shows that South Africans have lost hope and faith in the government.

“It is the lowest search trends volume seen on a budget speech since 2004. The public is not researching anything. There is also very little chatter on Twitter, limited to talk by mostly businesses, economists, and news publications. There is a silent hum online, underlined by empty promises.”

Post-speech Murray expects the Twittersphere to erupt, and this may fuel socio-political instability. She says the only real debate online right now revolves around social grants.

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“It’s a reprise of a sidebar conversation during the elections, with many experts now saying that once it’s implemented, there’s no going back.

She also pointed to the role of social media in last year’s troubles and noted one person already warning on Twitter that, “If there’s no food on the table, we will loot.”

External analysis of the National Treasury’s website shows that the tender pages are enjoying far more attention than any other segment of its online presence.

Murray finds this ironic, saying “given South Africa’s tenderpreneurship history that browsing for pitches still outstrip even biographical research on the Minister, on his own website.”