TimesLIVE reports that Solidarity and AfriForum on Tuesday said there were no legal restrictions on the purchasing of Covid-19 vaccines and called on the private sector to start buying and distributing them in SA.

They announced at a media briefing that the government had admitted in an affidavit — responding to their legal challenge on the procurement of vaccines — that there were no restrictions preventing the private sector from purchasing vaccines. COO of Solidarity, Dirk Hermann, charged that the government did not have the ability to manage the vaccine rollout process alone. “This includes the purchasing of vaccines. The private sector must be involved with the full vaccine value chain, from procurement to the administering of the vaccine. To ensure this, Solidarity and AfriForum approached the court to prevent the nationalisation of the vaccine process,” he stated. In the affidavit filed in the North Gauteng High Court, health department director-general Sandile Buthelezi claimed that the case brought by Solidarity and AfriForum and was “entirely hypothetical and speculative”. Yet, AfriForum’s Ernst van Zyl said they went to court to “finally get a response from government — whereas a simple response to our initial letter would have cost the government almost no time at all”. “There is now legal certainty that the private sector may purchase and distribute vaccines — a huge setback for looters,” Hermann pointed out. Solidarity and AfriForum called on large employers, medical distributors, medical aid funds and other role players to start buying, distributing and administering vaccines on a large scale.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Iavan Pijoos at TimesLIVE
• Read Solidarity’s press statement on this matter at Polity

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page