Last night South Africa had another one of its now infamous “family meetings” as President Cyril Ramaphosa once again addressed the nation and announced adjusted alert level 4 for the coming fortnight. Since then #RamaphosaMustFall and other hashtags critical of the news have been trending on Twitter.

At the time of writing #RamaphosaMustFall has around three thousand tweets that has increased with every refresh of the site. Other hashtags such as #AlcoholBan, #Covid19SA and #level4lockdown similarly have thousands of uses each.

While the tweets themselves and the people behind them are all diverse many share the common theme of believing the government has mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. These outcries have less to do with the adjusted lockdown itself and more with this apparent mishandling.

Looking at the official numbers about the coronavirus in South Africa and that sentiment is hard to argue with. As of today, 28th June 2021, 59 900 South Africans have died from the pandemic. The recovery rate for COVID-19 in South Africa is now just 88.7 percent. This means that contracting the coronavirus in this country has a greater than one in 10 chance of killing you, a horrifying prospect in isolation and even more infuriating as many countries around the world effectively vaccinate their populations while we lag behind.

There is also the economic impact of the lockdown as many people are without work with the government offering little assistance or real plan of action for any of its decisions.

All of this has boiled into the #RamaphosaMustFall hashtag and similar conversations on Twitter and other sites.

The real problem we facing now is not the pandemic, the real problem is corruption in SA. Vote wisely South Africans or else nohlala nikhala

#RamaphosaMustFall pic.twitter.com/7Exxeav8uq

— Lunah Tuc (@YOLO_4_real) June 28, 2021

South Africans should learn a thing or two from soccer…. If a player is not performing you substitute them and replace them with a better player that’s going to change the game and give us a win before the game ends…. We need a super sub! #RamaphosaMustFall

— The Notorious Cellular® (@Cellular_Jnr) June 28, 2021

Everyday when ANC wants to loot they lock us down????#RamaphosaMustFall

— MotshewaKeMama❤️???????? (@tshepaMotshewa) June 28, 2021

He failed us as South Africans, now he must go #RamaphosaMustFall pic.twitter.com/uwvSzQJA3j

— Zulu Man With Some Power® (@Mihlah_) June 28, 2021

Can you please just name one positive thing Cyril has done for South Africa. There is nothing. So, what is the point of having him as president then? Just to give speeches? #RamaphosaMustFall

— Thuso van Zyl (@Thuso1Africa) June 28, 2021

If useless was a panel????????????#RamaphosaMustFall pic.twitter.com/h84nkk3Eff

— CoolestCatCiddy (@CiddyRSA) June 28, 2021

Ramaphosa must step aside #RamaphosaMustFall pic.twitter.com/0RBlMLjzNK

— Dumisani (@Dumisa1) June 28, 2021