DURBAN - THE movement by individuals, communities, businesses and other civic organisations to clean up cities and malls after the looting and unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng in the past week and the observation of Mandela Day were some of the key drivers that has lifted the mood among some South Africans.
The torching of trucks, shopping malls and other key economic structures over the past week, saw South Africa’s mood reaching a low of 3.68 last Monday compared with the previous low point of 3.9 recorded a day earlier, according to the mood barometer, the SA’s Gross National Happiness index.
University of Johannesburg (UJ) academic Professor Talita Greyling said the decline in the Gross National Happiness index in the country had started when President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the country would remain at an adjusted level 4 lockdown in a bid to curb the spread of the Covid-19 during his address to the nation on July 11.
“We saw the nation’s mood decreasing to 3.9 with President Ramaphosa’s speech on July 11, which extended the lockdown.
“Added to this, the Zuma riots (which was sparked by protests against former president Jacob Zuma’s incarceration) raging since early Monday morning (July 12) then turning into the looting of businesses, pushed the mood to the lowest low measured, as yet, of 3.68 on Monday afternoon,” said the UJ academic.
The swift response by Ramaphosa in addressing the nation on Monday evening, the study showed, had helped somewhat in boosting citizens’ confidence.
“The speech denounced the riots, looting and criminal actions and emphasised ‘no shutdown’ of South Africa will be tolerated. The nation’s mood reacted positively to the speech, and the index moved briefly into the happy territory of above 5 to 5.49,” the report said.
According to the research, positive sentiment had tweets that portrayed the importance of protecting lives, “black lives matter”, and asking for strong leadership while also showing support for the actions taken by the president.
The movement by individuals, communities, businesses and other civic organisations to clean up following the mayhem and the observation of Mandela Day were some of the key drivers that have lifted the mood among South Africans.
The negative sentiment was reflected by tweets that portrayed, among others:
Fear and anger.
Concern over the uncertainty of the future.
Worry about jobs and safety.
“Many people believe that Zuma should not be in jail. Furthermore, they are against calling in the SANDF to control the riots. They fear the loss of lives,” the report continued.
The loss by Kaizer Chiefs to footballing giants Al Ahly in the African Champions League on Saturday evening was part of the negative sentiment picked up by the index.
The index was developed in 2019 ahead of the elections with the intention to determine how political activities were impacting on the mood of citizens.
The index is developed by studying thousands of tweets and the underlying emotions of tweets. They differentiate between eight emotions: anger, anticipation, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, surprise and trust.
THE MERCURY