Costa Titch, Thabo Bester, poverty solutions are among Mzansi’s top Google searches

South Africans have been on tenterhooks this past month, from the shock that law enforcement only found out a year later that rapist and murderer Thabo Bester escaped prison, to grief as rapper Costa Titch died after collapsing on stage. 

Google compiled a list of the most popular searches in March, a month dominated by shocking headlines. 

Among these was interest in fugitive Bester. The Sunday Times ran several articles on Bester’s escape from Mangaung Correctional Centre in May 2022. 

Also known as the “Facebook rapist”, he first dominated headlines in 2011 when he went on trial for luring aspiring models on social media while disguised as an international modelling agent, raping and robbing them. He was also convicted for the murder of his girlfriend, Nomfundo Tyhulu. 

According to Google’s analysis, “who is Thabo Bester?” was the second most asked question by South Africans in March. On most searched terms, Costa Titch topped the list. Musician Constantinos “Costa Titch” Tsobanoglou, 28, died on March 11 after collapsing in front of music fans at the Ultra Music Festival in Johannesburg.

The search engine company details that it gets millions of searches each day from across the world.

Here is what Mzansi asked on Google in March:

• What is Chatgpt? 

• Who is Thabo Bester? 

• Who is the minister of finance? 

• Who is Nhlanhla Lux? 

• What is the most direct way to alleviate poverty in SA? 

• What is climate change? 

• Who is the minister of electricity? 

• What is inflation? 

• What is Human Rights Day? 

Top searched terms:

• Costa Titch 

• International women’s day 

• National shutdown 

• Thabo Bester 

• West Indies vs SA 

• Nhlanhla Lux 

• Gloria Bosman 

• Riana Pretorius 

• Katlego Danke 

• Terry Pheto