Della Togna, MGarman, ABurton, SJacobs, JKleyn, KSithole, Happy M2025-08-252025-08-252023-11978-0-621-51598-5http://hdl.handle.net/10204/14379Whereas the South Africa Covid-19 Country Report, First edition’s chapter on Communications investigated the capacity and effectiveness of government’s communications strategy as South Africa went through the various stages of lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic, the second edition probes four themes in greater depth and includes recommendations for policy consideration. Theme 1 of the chapter explores how research was used to inform the communications’ strategies of government during the vaccination phase, which intended to return society to a form of normality, where it became crucial to understand how messages were interpreted and to gauge the impact and threat of vaccine misinformation. Theme 2 critiques the impact of Covid-19 on government communications’ expenditure and asks critical questions about how taxpayers' money was allocated toward informing the public about Covid-19 and its impact on their health and well-being. Theme 3 probes the experiences of scientists in the communication of scientific information during the pandemic, and its uptake by the community and by decision-makers. Theme 4 reviews the efforts made by government to accelerate ICT infrastructure roll-out in an effort to close the access gap with a particular view to the role of South Africa’s communication regulator, ICASA, in enabling the acceleration at regulation and policy level, in recognition that a digital divide contributes to increased inequalities within society – with damaging effects on vulnerable groups caused by digital exclusion. The chapter includes a case study on the community of Swartkop in the Northern Cape which reports on the development of social confrontation, exclusion and community-level dissatisfaction caused by digital legislation.FulltextenGovernment communications strategyCovid-19Swartkop communityBook Chaptern/a