Teacher vaccinations will move with speed, assures Motshekga

Motshekga said the department learnt a lot from day one of the rollout of the Johnson & Johnson jabs to teachers and support staff around the country.

She was speaking at the Atteridgeville Community Hall in Tshwane where she accompanied five union officials to get their jabs. 

"(The Department of) Health made us under-plan because they said to us it takes us 15 minutes to go through the process from screening to getting the jab. 

"But we found that what we had planned to do in 6 hours we were able to do in four hours, which means we can bring more people so there are no delays and are able to move as quick as possible," Motshekga said.

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"Because the system is loaded with the information of the people being vaccinated, it takes about seven minutes. So we have asked provinces to bring more people to the vaccination sites."

At least 48 000 teachers were vaccinated on Wednesday, according to the department's preliminary report. 

The Western Cape and Limpopo have not started their vaccination process, Motshekga confirmed Limpopo would start on Friday.

She said some provinces will be able to vaccinate on weekends but not all. 

The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) said only 6% of its members have expressed concerns about the vaccination process.

General-secretary Mugwena Maluleka has encouraged teachers to get the jab.

READ: Sadtu calls for more jab sites as 21 000 KZN teachers inoculated

He was one of the union leaders who was inoculated on Thursday.

"Our message to teachers is that they take the vaccine because it will protect them, their family and their schools. We need to stand together as the people of South Africa and be vaccinated because vaccines have been with us for a long time."

Maluleke said the two-week target the department needs to show how efficient the public service could be.