Information about Eskom’s power crisis is one of the hottest topics that South Africans searched for on Google during April.
According to Google’s Trent tool, “loadshedding” is one of the top searches performed locally as people face the winter with unreliable electricity supply.
“Ironically, Earth Day Quiz, number one search term for all of April, was the ooly other things South Africans Googled about more than load shedding. The Earth Day Quiz was the doodle Google created to mark Earth Day on 22 April,” said Google.
Looking beond the issues surrounding electricity, many people also searched for content related to the xenophobic attacks that are damaging South Africa’s international relations.
Google also said that, “other notable and heart-breaking stories that South Africans followed this month, according to what most searched on Google in South Africa, included: Helen Zille stepping down as leader of the Democratic Alliance, the Cecil John Rhodes statue being removed from the University of Cape Town, Bran Molefe taking over as CEO of Eskom; and the shocking deaths of Port Elizabeth teacher Jayde Pranayitou and Chris Nkosi, the Gauteng secretary for the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union.
South Africans also searched for sports content during April, especially related to the PSL Premier Soccer League) matches.
Google claimed, “There were 31 clusters of football related search terms, with Kaizer Chiefs – which clinched the PSL this month – being the team most searched for in South Africa.
The death of John “Shoes” Moshoeu and Richard Henyekane also topped sport searches in the country.
Google processes about 3.5 billion searches per day.
