AN ANALYSIS OF SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT CRISIS COMMUNICATION
Public security and safety remain a fundamental responsibility of governments across the globe. Government officials who work to serve their publics, such as law and policy makers, have a core duty to protect all stakeholders and citizens from various crises, natural or man-made. Consequently, this research has identified a need for a critical analysis of South African government crisis communication with a focus on two recent crises to determine its effectiveness as a key component in the principle of good governance. The research adopted a qualitative research design method using secondary data. Thematic analysis was used to interpret the data. Multiple documents such as official government documents, policies, reports and journal articles concerning the subject of government communication and crisis communication were analysed to examine the roles and responsibilities of government communication in South Africa, its policies and guidelines during a crisis and understand the implementation of the policies and guidelines during specific crisis situations. The research found that during a crisis, the South African government communication policies and guidelines play a crucial role in the provision of credible information to the public, however, there is cause for concern regarding the effectiveness of the implementation of government communication in response to the two specific crises analyzed in the research.
Government Communication; Crisis Communication; Good Governance.