DA to approach Human Rights Commission over ‘slow’ vaccine rollout
The Democratic
Alliance (DA) will approach the South African Human Rights Commission to investigate government’s "tardy and criminally slow vaccine rollout
strategy”.
The opposition party says this is in addition to the legal challenge against government.
The party's Siviwe Gwarube says it has been almost two months since the start of the Johnson & Johnson Sisonke trial, which is meant to overlap with phase 1 of the rollout to cover the target of 1.2 million healthcare workers.
"To date, just over 269 000 healthcare workers have been vaccinated – a fraction of the target.
"The trial alone is meant to cover 500 000 healthcare workers but has been impossibly slow.
"In the last 4 days alone, not a single jab has been administered.”
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Gwarube says while Health Minister Zweli Mkhize blames external factors, she believes the country's acquisition of the jabs was slow at the beginning.
"For the past couple of months, South Africans have been pleaded with to be patient as misleading words such as ‘secured doses’ have been bandied about to create a false sense of productivity by the South African government.
"We cannot continue hoping that the timeline which keeps on being adjusted for the impossible delays will be met because nothing has gone according to government’s plan to date."
