#FeesMustFall, emojis, #RWC2015: Twitter SA’s 2015 year in review

As 2015 draws to a close, you can expect to see a whole load of annual round-ups. One of the earliest off the mark this year is Twitter, which on Monday published its global #YearOnTwitter page. It’s also sent through a review of how the year went down on South African Twitter.

As increasing numbers of South Africans come online, Twitter increasingly becomes a real-time soundtrack to the biggest moments and events as they unfold. And according to Twitter, the moments South African tweeters are most concerned with are hard news, sport, and big TV events.

Here’s how Twitter broke down the biggest events in those three categories.

News
In the news category, Twitter says, the two of the top trending hashtags (#FeesMustFall and #NationalShutdown) sparked massive public debate and reached a global audience which saw students from around the world united. The State of the Nation Address, #SONA2015 was highly anticipated by many South Africans while the Democratic Alliance’s attempt at hosting a Twitter Townhall made the top five for wrong reasons as it was overtaken by South Africans who asked thousands of questions, the majority which were unrelated to the purpose of the Townhall (although it may not have been as much of a calamity as it initially seemed).

• Fees Must Fall – #FeesMustFall
• SONA2015 – #SONA2015
• NationalShutdown – #NationalShutdown
• AskMmusi – #AskMmusi
• Loadshedding – #Loadshedding

Sports
South Africa is a sports-obsessed nation and this year was no different as some of the world’s biggest sporting events trended on Twitter. #RWC2015 took top spot as South Africa made it to the semi-finals and due to South Africa’s performance at this year’s Cricket World Cup #ProteaFire also trended. A country with a strong football following it was no surprise that #MUFC and #AbsaPrem made the top five as both of these were used by fans before, during and after matches. The highly competitive #SuperRugby tournament also made the top 5 as fans from South Africa and around the world used Twitter to support their favorite teams.

• RWC2015 (@rugbyworldcup) – #RWC2015
• ProteaFire (@officialCSA) – #ProteaFire
• MUFC – #MUFC
• AbsaPrem – #AbsaPrem
• SuperRugby (@superrugby) – #SuperRugby

TV
Reality TV is top in South Africa, with four of the top five trending TV hashtags relating to reality series and shows. One reason that Big Brother Mzansi attracted so much attention is because of an alleged rape incident in April.

• BB Mzansi – (@BBMzansi) – #BBMzansi
• Idols SA (@IdolsSA) – #IdolsSA
• Skeem Saam – (@SkeemSaam3) – #SkeemSaam
• Date My Family – #DateMyFamily
• Uzalo – (@Uzalo_SABC1) – #Uzalo