AN EARLY WARNING SYSTEM FOR MALARIA IN MOPANI DISTRICT: DIVERGENT OR CONVERGENT APPROACHES

Abstract. Malaria is a tropical climate-change concatenated biological hazard that may, like any other hazard, lead to a disaster and requires a multidisciplinary divergent approach. This research was carried out in Mopani District of South Africa. It sought find out whether the existing early warning system in Mopani District is adopting a convergent or divergent approach. Subsequently, this was to assist in developing a tool that covers the loopholes in the existing system to further mitigate malaria transmissions. The study took a mixed approach. Data was collected from 381 selected participants through in-depth interviews, a survey, and a focus group discussion. Multiple sampling techniques were used in this study. In-depth interviews respondents were selected through snowballing, questionnaire survey respondents were sampled randomly, while for the discussants in the focus group discussion were purposively sampled. The study applied constructivist grounded theory to analyse qualitative data and to generate theory. Results of the study show that people in Mopani District predict the malaria season onset by forecasting rainfall using various indigenous knowledge-based indicators. The rainfall indicators mentioned by participants in the study were used to develop an early warning system. In the design of the system, Apache Cordova, JDK 1.8, Node JS, and XAMPP software were used. The study recommends malaria management and control key stakeholders to adopt the developed early warning system to further mitigate malaria transmission in Mopani District.