DA to nominate SA health workers for Nobel Peace Prize
The race for the 2022 Nobel peace prize has gotten underway with South Africa throwing various healthcare workers into the hat.
During the national address on Monday evening President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Cabinet’s decision to approve a proposal to nominate the Henry Reeve International Contingent of Doctors Specialised in Disaster Situations and Serious Epidemics.
The Cuban medical brigade was deployed to South Africa in April last year to bolster the country’s efforts to deal with the spread of the coronavirus.
Some 200 healthcare workers arrived in the country, while thousands others were deployed to other parts of Africa.
But Cabinet’s decision has not gone down well with the Democratic Alliance (DA).
DA MP Siviwe Gwarube says the decision by Cabinet is in bad taste.
“This is truly bizarre at best and a great insult to South African healthcare workers at worst. No one will ever argue that we cannot express gratitude to international partners who have assisted the country in this journey, but that surely cannot be done by overlooking the monumental sacrifice done by our healthcare workers under impossible conditions.”
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Gwarube says the party believes South African healthcare workers are more deserving of the honour.
“It is for this reason that the Democratic Alliance will submit its own application to the Nobel Foundation for consideration for 2022 since this year’s nominations have closed. The motivation for this nomination will be clear: South African healthcare workers have been fighting valiantly against this pandemic in the front lines for almost a year next month.
“Many healthcare workers have not received a salary increase due to the fiscal cliff South Africa finds itself in as a direct result of poor management of the economy; many were scrambling for personal protective equipment at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic while government struggled to secure supplies to protect them,” Gwarube says.
Gwarube further slams government for failing to recognise the country’s frontline workers.
“It is unthinkable that this great sacrifice would be ignored and there would be disproportionate recognition given to the Cuban Medical Brigade which was contracted to South Africa at the tune of almost R240 million for a year. The efficacy of this deployment is yet to be proven in the greater scheme of the country’s fight against Covid-19. Yet, the very people who have stitched together our broken healthcare system have simply been given platitudes to show our gratitude as a country.
Recipients of Nobel prizes in South Africa include former Presidents Nelson Mandela and FW De Klerk, anti-apartheid activists Albert Luthuli, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and writer Nadine Gordimer.
