Johannesburg - Google South Africa data showed that there was more interest in Hlomla Dandala’s marital troubles than in President Cyril Ramaphosa's first State of the Nation Address as a democratically elected president.
Last week, Dandala took to social media to allege that his wife had cheated on him with an unnamed man with a bald head (chiskop).
More than 20 000 people searched about Hlomla Dandala and an SANDF soldier, only known as ‘Mabena’. The soldier went viral on social media last week after videos circulated of him failing to apply his training with an animated voice of an instructor admonishing him.
‘Fathers Day’ and ‘Happy Fathers Day’ also dominated the search engine over the past weekend, with more than 100 000 searches on Saturday and more than 200 000 searches on Sunday.
Just a day before the Sona, Google data showed that there were just as many searches for ‘SONA 2019’ as there were for ‘Phumzile van Damme’ and ‘FNB News’. All had 10 000+ searches.
To those with their opinions & don’t even know what went down. What’s the procedure when a man (yes MAN) is on the edge of violence & says voetsek & tells you he can say so because you’re black? Do you stand there & wait for a beating? Soze ndibethwe ngumuntu mina.
Mncwi 🤞🏾
— Phumzile Van Damme (@zilevandamme) June 19, 2019
1/2 We can confirm that the issue of incorrect balances on some of our customers’ transactional accounts have been resolved. The incorrect balances were due to delayed debit card transactions for purchases. Sincere apologies to impacted customers for the inconvenience caused...
— FNB South Africa (@FNBSA) June 19, 2019
Van Damme was in the news for slapping a Cape Town youth in an alleged racist incident at the V&A Waterfront, while FNB had garnered attention after a glitch saw the bank deposit cash into the accounts of some account holders this week.
Also being searched in the same range as SONA 2019, was Metro FM presenter DJ Fresh, who was suspended this weekend for allegedly using foul language during his show.
He has since been taken off air by the SABC while it investigates the matter.
HOLD ON @RelebogileM... so despite telling them that there has been no fight between us, these papers still insist that we fought ??? Ok 🤷🏿♂️ pic.twitter.com/J4UjOhPpyG
— DJ Fresh (Big Dawg) (@DJFreshSA) June 14, 2019
Hug it out guys. pic.twitter.com/m1uYnGxtCv
— [L]e[S]e[D]i (@_Hybreed_) June 19, 2019
And finally, a spat between A-list musicians Cassper Nyovest and Prince Kaybee saw a spike in the search for the word ‘shotpan’ after their Twitter war.
The word ‘shotpan’, reportedly refers to male underwear, and this was how the Gugulethu hitmaker referred to Cassper Nyovest, who is famous for the Fill Up concerts.