Khoza, Palesa2025-04-252024Khoza, Palesa. (2024). Food Riot? Analyzing the July 2021 Unrest in South Africa Using Topic Modeling [Masters dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. WIReDSpace. https://hdl.handle.net/10539/44864https://hdl.handle.net/10539/44864A research report Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for a Degree of MA in E-science, In the Faculty of Humanities , School of Social Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024The July 2021 unrest in South Africa trended on Twitter between the 9th and 31st of July 2021. The unrest received attention from different groups of society, it was interpreted by the media, government, and scholars. This paper explores whether the July 2021 unrest was framed as a food riot by the affected communities across KwaZulu–Natal and Gauteng provinces in South Africa. A dictionary-based analysis and STM topic modeling were conducted on 8264 geo-tagged tweets extracted from the 9th to the 31 of July 2021 to capture the views of the communities in areas affected by the unrest. The findings indicate that conversations concerning the unrest were around collective action, food disturbances, political dissatisfaction, looting, and socio-economic stressors. This study found that political dissatisfaction is linked to a lack of governance response to the deteriorating socio-economic conditions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings of this study suggest that loss of income and high food prices associated with the pandemic contributed to food disturbances. In addition, food price increases were expected in the aftermath of the social unrest. In conclusion, the views on Twitter revealed conversations around multiple interlinked issues.en© 2024 University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.UCTDJuly unrest 2021Food riotsLootingDissertationUniversity of the Witwatersrand, JohannesburgSDG-16: Peace, justice and strong institutions