Yet, even without self-inflicted reputational damage, government communications about Covid face a struggle to cross South Africa’s linguistic and economic divides. Under its constitution, South Africa recognises 11 official languages and, while English is the lingua franca of business, politics and South Africa’s internet, it is far from the most widely spoken. South Africa’s digital divide is real. South Africa has had experience of communicating about public health emergencies before, particularly its high rates of HIV infection. In the earlier phases of South Africa’s lockdowns, some patients seeking help for non-Covid ailments were wrongly turned away by clinics.

Source: The North Africa Journal November 18, 2021 06:00 UTC