The Citizen reports that trade union Solidarity and lobby group AfriForum on Thursday said they were proceeding with the preparation of court papers against Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma over government’s implementation plan for Covid-19 vaccines.
This was because she failed to respond to their letter of demand of 13 January in which the organisations claimed that the government had not been transparent about the details of its vaccine plan. Solidarity and AfriForum said in a joint statement that the government was “playing a reckless game by refusing to be transparent.” AfriForum’s Ernst van Zyl stated that government’s failure to disclose the information was proof that it could not be trusted with a “monopoly” to be the sole purchaser of vaccines from manufacturers globally. Solidarity said the current implementation plan came down to nationalising the distribution and administration of the vaccine. “There is no clarity on the rollout of the government’s so-called vaccine plan at the moment. It is also not clear why Drs Dlamini-Zuma and [Zweli] Mkhize have the power to prohibit anyone but the state to procure vaccines,” said Connie Mulder, the head of the Solidarity Research Institute. He added that they were not against the government being the sole purchaser of vaccines, “but there is absolutely no reason why they must be the only institution involved in the process.”
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Thapelo Lekabe at The Citizen
- Read Solidarity’s and AfriForum’s press statement in the above regard at Polity
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page