Yet we have R10 Billion to bail out SAA?

You can’t shut down sectors of the economy and not provide some relief. Surely the welfare of our citizens is worth more than a vanity project?

Ramaphosa admits there’s no money to help families hit by COVID-19.

Ramaphosa and his ANC have dropped the vaccine ball!

Failure will have a big human cost and the government will have to bear full responsibility for those lives.

The government has been caught on the back foot and is scrambling to create some sort of narrative in which it had a plan all along but it is such “top-secret” stuff that we cannot know the details. That simply won’t do.

President Ramaphosa claimed that his government has been working on vaccine acquisition for 6 months. Yet there is much evidence to suggest this is simply not the truth.

We have been reliably informed that calls to the reputable vaccine manufacturers only started this year once the political pressure ramped up, even though some of them stopped taking orders in June last year already.

Did Ramaphosa and his government mislead SA?

Until the vaccine is rolled out, we need to limit the damage from lockdown restrictions by taking a differentiated approach urgently. The vaccine details are very vague.

SA is effectively bankrupt and cannot afford to support jobs affected by restrictions.

We call on Ramaphosa to:

1⃣ Give clarity on where the 20 million doses are coming from and when they will arrive.

2⃣ Pursue bilateral contracts with all reputable suppliers in a transparent manner for the remaining 20 to 60 million vaccines required.

3⃣ Ensure the private sector and provincial governments are allowed to contribute in a positive way to enable the fastest possible acquisition and rollout programme. Both private and public platforms need to be used for the rollout.

4⃣ Ensure that the proper approval processes are followed for the Chinese and Russian suppliers, since this is where the politically connected will most likely be looking to score kickbacks.

5⃣ Give clarity on the Covax arrangement. When can we expect their arrival?

6⃣ Give clarity on the AU pool of 1.5 billion vaccines.

If the President wants the buy-in of South Africans into this crucial vaccination stage of the fight against Covid-19, then he has to start giving them reasons to trust the government. Sending vans and helicopters full of SAPS officers to arrest a few surfers is not the way to build this trust. It can only be done by demonstrating an honest commitment to the protection of the lives of our citizens. And that can only be achieved through the fast and widespread rollout of vaccines.