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The purpose of this article is to highlight how technologies, which have for centuries revolutionalized healthcare, have conversely increased health disparities among disadvantaged communities in South Africa during coronavirus disease (COVID-19). A hard lockdown imposed on the country in March 2020, as an initial measure of containment of the novel virus, became unfeasible due to detrimental, mostly economic effects on the economy. From 1 May, the government eased the lockdown restrictions and shifted the emphasis from containment to behaviour change measures using communication strategies that promoted adherence. Yet, even within disadvantaged communities, there have been differences in health-related access with differing levels of disadvantage. Secondary data were analysed from a cross-sectional quantitative survey conducted in ten disadvantaged communities in the Northern Cape and Gauteng Provinces involving 1742 participants. Results show that the lack of digital access to information created an obstacle to adherence to some recommended COVID-19-related behaviour change measures. Disparities existed between the two provinces’ disadvantaged communities based on an urban versus a rural province. The study emphasized the need to assess the extent of underlying obstacles to health equity and achievement of healthcare goals propagated by an interface between healthcare and socio-economic factors. Breakthroughs in healthcare, facilitated by virtual modes of communication may be undermined by a digital divide exacerbating disparities in disadvantaged communities.

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Narrative health communication has the potential for effective health promotion about cancer amongst youth from low- and middle-income countries such as South Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa experiences a rising cancer-related disease burden with predicted increase of over 85% by 2030. Whilst promotion through communication, of cancer prevention strategies targeting 18–29 year olds remains scanty, it is crucial for cancer prevention behaviour before the disease develops. The study aimed at examining how narrative storytelling can create cancer awareness amongst students at the University of Johannesburg. A qualitative approach was adopted. During October 2019, an awareness session that formed part of a month-long health campaign involving various activities for students, promoted preventative behaviour leading to early cancer detection. Campus Health Services in collaboration with other University departments invited six cancer survivors and experts to share stories about their various cancer experiences with students and staff. Many of the participants aged between 18 and 49 years, indicated that they did not know how to engage in self-examination of their bodies and had never taken any cancer tests. Most of the participants expressed a willingness to engage in frequent self-examination and visiting health facilities to receive regular professional tests as a result of storytelling. Results may assist health promotion organisations with the construction of effective cancer health messaging especially for hard-to-reach groups such as youth in developing countries.

This chapter highlights the growth of voluntary movement of labour force through globalisations and resultant pressure on economies to compete with one another. In this global economic environment, demand to acquire access to those individuals with critical professional skills has grown, thus opening up opportunities for individuals to move to recruiting countries and employer organisations across the globe. This has been evidenced by the exponential rise of degreed migrants in comparison to low-skilled migrants. These voluntary economic migrants, are individuals with some university education, with special professional skills who choose to move to a destination country for professional opportunities. Adapting to a new social context or setting involves overcoming social representation barriers arising from acculturation schismogenesis and the discussion highlights the similarities of such individuals to other migrants. The challenge for individual migrants is in working to reconstruct their identities in their transnational context to build themselves a new social reality through stabilising schism arising from their transnational social representations meeting. Eleven voluntary economic migrants’ interpersonal online and offline communication was analysed using three sets of data and arranged into themes related to their process of re-identity. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the implications of such skilled individuals being unable to reconstruct and stabilise their identity in their new context on recruiting countries, namely financial cost and loss of critical skills.