In times of uncertainty and fear, as is common in public health outbreaks such as the COVID-19 pandemic, information obtained through effective communication remains a key tool for countries.
These were the sentiments of the various African communicators during a webinar hosted by Government Communications and Information System (GCIS) Director-General, Phumla Williams, on Monday.
The webinar brought together various African communicators from across the continent to discuss some of the best practices for effective communication that empowers the ordinary citizen during epidemics, with a specific focus on the role played by the media.
The webinar comes as countries all over the world continue to deal with the blows of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the majority of the continent’s 1 187 937 Coronavirus cases found in South Africa, which has 611 450 cases recorded.
Highlighting some of the lessons learned during the pandemic, Williams said key to South Africa's strategy to combat the virus is the communication adopted by government, with the backing support of the media.
“At the start of the outbreak, the Health Department led the communication. A strategy was adopted to maximise communication, with the GCIS leading communications and the Health Department signing off on the information.
“Media in this country went beyond the call in ensuring that information is available to the public. To date, the last research report received noted that 90% of South Africans know what is expected of them regarding COVID-19 but there are challenges in observing the health protocols,” Williams said.
Among the speakers at the webinar was African Union spokesperson, Ebba Kalondo, who spoke glowingly about Africa’s preparedness for public health emergencies such as COVID-19, based on previous outbreaks.
“Many countries are only learning about epidemics and pandemics but Africa has had extremely meaningful lessons from epidemics, such as the outbreaks of Yellow fever, Zika virus, cholera and Ebola.
“What the African Union learned from the Ebola outbreak is that they cannot be unprepared and thus set up the African Centre for Disease Control (ACDC) to deal with public health emergencies and threats. One of the biggest lessons the CDC learned, which is being implemented, is collaborate and communicate,” said Kalondo.
Armed with lessons from previous outbreaks, Kalondo said one thing that is clear is that communication during a pandemic is not the same as communication in normal times.
“People don’t take in information the same way when they are panicked or fearful. What pandemics also do is bring existing inequalities to the fore. Communication or engagement during a pandemic cannot be led by politics. It has to be science.”
While Kalondo punted the importance of effective communication and engagement with communities, she cautioned communicators from selling pipe dreams.
“During a pandemic, people need to be reassured but not overly reassured because you cannot promise when things are ever-changing,” she said.
Trust communication in time
Having led communications in the Democratic Republic of Congo during its 2014 - 2016 Ebola outbreak as the Health Ministry’s Communications Director, Jessica Ilunga highlighted the importance of a trust relationship between government and citizens.
“Despite a long history with Ebola, the Ministry of Health had no clear template of a communication strategy, so I pretty much had to start from scratch.
“In terms of communication, we had to build a trust relationship, where the DRC was the most trusted source of information on the outbreak,” said Ilunga.
Equally, with the introduction of social media as a news source, media now more than ever must be a trustworthy source, said France24 Senior Journalist Fatima Wane.
“Trust is very important and we as media cannot survive without trust. People don't need us any more to get information. They get their information from social media. People may come to us to verify if the information they got from social media is true,” said Wane.
SABC Group Executive for Corporate Affairs, Gugu Ntuli, said the role of media is not only to inform but it is to ensure that the country emerges from the pandemic.
This, Ntuli said, can also be seen in the role played by the SABC in airing educational programmes to assist learners who lost teaching time as a result of the pandemic. – SAnews.gov.za
