Book author and lawyer Petina Gappah has said Zimbabwe does not have a crisis management communications plan.

She was writing on the micro logging website Twitter.

Her comments come as Spain banned movements from house to shops among other non essential places, and the United States revealed it is to ban travel to and from the UK and Ireland.

Gappah raised the issue of trust saying the ongoing information announcements are being passed by the ministry of Information instead of Health. Her comments drew mild criticism, and below was the full thread:

In Covid-19, it’s clear the Government of Zimbabwe has no communications plan for crisis management. I don’t know if the crisis management plan is itself there, but if so, it is being so poorly communicated it suggests there is no plan as communications is an essential component. 

Crisis Management aims to prevent or lessen damage from a crisis. A good comms plan is absolutely vital in supporting this aim. Among others, a good comms plan must be clear, truthful, time sensitive, authoritative, consistent and should aim to reassure and gain public trust. 

One trusted comms spokesperson should be chosen, to deliver expertise in simple, clear language. This should be an institution.

It’s a mistake to have @nickmangwana@Jamwanda2 or @InfoMinZW as spokespersons simply because for obvious reasons, they only enjoy partisan trust. The ideal spokesperson is the Ministry of Health, but they need to get a solid comms plan.

The WHO is able to assist on the basis of international best practice.

The Ministry should be the focal point in control of disseminating consistent info to others, incl. the above. 

Government voices like those I cited above should be encouraged not to feed consipiracy theories. It only shows that government is both inept and uncaring.

Whatever theories you have as a person, people are dying in a global pandemic. The comms should reflect seriousness. 

Those are a few ideas on strategic communications. I hope they are received in the spirit in which they are given.

Very best wishes to Zim.

I hope we deal head on with a pandemic that shows that, whatever our parochial politics as nations, crises do not respect borders.