“…From strides in the development of theoretical frameworks (Benoit, 2013; Coombs, 2004) to the use of social media during crises (Austin et al, 2012; Du Plessis, 2018; Lin et al, 2016; Roshan et al, 2016), crisis communication scholarship has continued to grow. Scholarship on crisis communications in Africa has also been developing, particularly in South Africa, where an initial focus on strategic communication and public relations (Wassserman and Hyde-Clarke, 2016) has now expanded into more specific crisis studies such as how the government used a professional and nuanced approach to stakeholder communications during COVID-19 (John et al, 2022) but could have focused further on emotional messaging (Wiese and Van Der Westhuzien, 2023), or how social media should be embedded in strategic crisis communication planning (Chiotia et al, 2022). Studies focusing on Africa often highlight cultural aspects of crisis communications, for example, the implications of high-power distance and respect for authority in Ghana (Kwansah-Aido, 2017) or the importance of culture, ethnicity and religion in Nigeria over accuracy and the timeliness of information (George, 2016, 2017).…”