COVID-19 breathes life into the digital kgotla

The names are uniquely local and highly relatable. Life Matters, Ask Rakgadi, Motswana Woman are some of the biggest communities on local social media, with hundreds of thousands of loyal members and scores of posts per day on a variety of topical issues.

Where the fireside chats and kgotla meetings require face to face interactions, these pages, and many others like them, provide anonymity. There are no VIPs on these pages, no protocol to observe. Anyone can post their issue or view and within minutes, the ‘community’ responds with their input, suggestions, recommendations or criticism.