What do Cyril Ramaphosa and Shepherd Bushiri have in common?

08 February 2019 - 09:29
By TimesLIVE
Shepherd and Mary Bushiri were released on R100,000 bail each on Wednesday, February 6.
Image: Facebook/Prophet Shepherd Bushiri Shepherd and Mary Bushiri were released on R100,000 bail each on Wednesday, February 6.

Shepherd Bushiri, the leader of the Enlightened Christian Gathering Church (ECG), was the most searched individual on Google SA this week, as church devotees were left shocked by their "prophet" being hauled into custody and court.

Bushiri and his wife Mary were arrested by authorities at their Rustenburg hotel home last Friday on suspicion of fraud and money laundering.

Bushiri trended twice on Google Search: With more than 20,000 search queries on Monday for "Bushiri Breaking News" when they made their first court appearance; and with more than 100,000 search queries on the day of the arrest for "Bushiri".

President Cyril Ramaphosa's plans for 2019 was the other big Google ticket item, as he delivered his second state of the nation address (Sona). South Africans generated more than 100,000 search queries for "Sona 2019" on Wednesday and more than 10,000 queries for "Sona 2019 Time" on Thursday.

On Tuesday, Lotto players were eager to find out whether they had won the National Lottery's PowerBall and PowerBall Plus jackpots of R165m and R5m respectively - which ended up being a rollover.

"PowerBall results winning numbers" generated more than 10,000 search queries, tying with "DJ Shimza" who took to Twitter to announce that his Mercedes Benz AMG G63 had been stolen from his home in Blue Valley Golf Estate, Centurion.

On Monday, "21 Savage" generated more than 20,000 search queries on Google SA, as it emerged that the rapper had been arrested for overstaying his US visa and is now facing deportation. Prior to the arrest, 21 Savage fans assumed that the 26-year-old rapper was an American citizen contrary to the claims of US immigration officers who say he is in fact British.

An M-Net Sunday movie generated more than 10,000 search queries on Sunday with netizens looking up information on Breaking In. The action film stars Gabrielle Union as a mother who has to save her children from home intruders. "Gabrielle Union" also generated more than 2,000 search queries on Sunday.

The EFF hosted thousands at Giant Stadium in Soshanguve on Saturday as the party launched its election manifesto. In his speech Julius Malema covered land, jobs, youth unemployment, living conditions and drug abuse.

"EFF manifesto launch 2019" generated more than 20,000 search queries on the day.

The search trends information is gleaned from data collated by Google based on what South Africans have been searching for and asking Google.