“Death is something inevitable.When a man has done what he considers to be his duty to his people & his country, he can rest in peace” #Madiba - @NelsonMandela.

With over 15,000 South African retweets and 150,000 internationally, this was the most engaged tweet on social network Twitter regarding the death of former South African President Nelson Mandela, according to social media monitoring firm Fuseware.

Fuseware managing director Mike Wronski has told ITWeb Africa that his company collected over 250,000 mentions from over 100,000 South Africans about Mandela in the last few days, which shows “just how widespread social media adoption is” in the country.

“South Africans are using this platform to voice their commentary, opinions and tributes to the world,” Mike Wronski told ITWeb Africa.

Apart from engaging on Twitter regarding Mandela’s death, South African internet users have also taken to video website YouTube to view live streams of events, such as Tuesday’s memorial, pertaining to the mourning of the former leader.

Both the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and eNews Channel Africa (eNCA) have had live coverage pertaining to Mandela’s passing on their YouTube channels.

ITWeb Africa reported on Tuesday that over 50,000 viewers at one point viewed these YouTube channels.

“The nature of media consumption is quickly changing, and digital media offer consumers a level of convenience and control that is unmatched in more traditional broadcast media,” Wronski has told ITWeb Africa.

“We will see this trend continue as more consumers engage on social channels and use these platforms to share their thoughts and opinions. We will see a much tighter integration of traditional media with digital in the future. This isn’t to say that digital will replace traditional, but will augment and enhance the way traditional media is used,” Wronski has added.

Wronski has gone on to say that South African social media adoption and engagement “isn’t that far behind the international curve.”

“We are seeing a vast increase in digitally created content, especially from South African brands. This is great news for consumers, since it leads to high quality, engaging customer experiences supplemented with great content.

“Consumers have driven this trend through their adoption, but brands are now following suit, even at the risk of disrupting their own business models,” Wronski has said.

There are 5,5-million Twitter users in South Africa, according to research by World Wide Worx and Fuseware.