President Lt Gen Ian Khama may be hogging the headlines in Botswana, especially in the government media, however he is among the least news worthy Southern African Development Community heads of states. With 336 000 Google entries, President Khama ranks 12th among the 15 SADC heads of government scoring slightly higher than Namibia’s Hage Geingob who has 328 000 entries, Lesotho’s Pakalitha Mosisili who trails behind with 83,900 Google entries and Mauritius President Ameenah Gurib who ranks bottom with 81, 300 entries. Gurib has been in office for five months and Geinghob only became President in March 2015 while Khama has been president since April 2008. The Google entries show the extent to which a subject has been making news.
SADC’s Number one newsmaker is South African President Jacob Zuma who scores 10, 700, 000 entries followed by Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe who has 8,750 000 Google entries and Angola’s President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos with 8 850 000 entries. The fourth most prolific newsmaker in the SADC block is James Michel of Seychelles with 118 000 000 entries. Michel has been president since 2004. Democratic Republic of Congo’s Joseph Kabila comes a distant fifth with 725 000 entries followed by Tanzania’s John Pombe Magafuli with 484 000 entries. Magafuli only became president earlier this month. The seventh most news worthy SADC head of state is Edgar Lungu of Zambia with 378 000 entries followed by Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique with 370 000 entries. Both Lungu and Nyusi only became presidents this year. Also in the top ten is Malawi’s Peter Mutharika who ranks ninth with 356 000 Google entries. Mutharika has been in office since May 2014. Swaziland’s King Mswati III comes a close tenth with 351 000 entries. Madagascar’s Hery Rajaonarimampianini ranks eleventh with 346 000 entries. Rajaonarimampianini who became president in January 2014 has only been in office for 23 months.
SADC’s biggest newsmaker of all time is the late South African struggle icon, Nelson Mandela who has 52, 900, 000 Google entries. Mandela has more Google entries than the combined entries of all current SADC heads of government .
