Saftu brands slow pace of vaccine rollout as ‘education rights violation’
The South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) says children’s right to education is suffering because of the slow pace of Covid-19 vaccination.
The trade union federation is concerned that the country will not reach its target of inoculating more than 40 million South Africans by the end of the year.
General-secretary Zwelinzima Vavi says with 60 000 doses being administered daily, the county is dismally lagging behind its peers.
“The overarching problem remains obvious: the lack of global coordination in spreading appropriate vaccines, and opening new factories to make these. The reason for this problem is big pharma’s greed, insofar as intellectual property rights continue to halt progress in vaccine dissemination in all the world’s countries.
Other local factors that continue to be serious obstacles to the roll-out include shortages caused by government’s initial reliance on one supplier, J&J.”
Vavi says the working class and the poor are bearing the brunt.
“The real and social consequences of this failure, however, are greater for the country’s poor and working-class people, ordinary souls who deserve far better. The shortage of vaccines has also dealt a great blow to the basic education capabilities of the state, and even the higher education sector. In the basic education sector, teachers and other non-teaching staff were set to be inoculated starting this week.
“This plan is not going ahead because of the shortage of vaccines, with government holding their breath wishing the FDA will give a green light on the J&J drugs in question.”
SAFTU reiterates that the vaccine bungling, and vaccine shortages are prolonging the risk of death that confronts especially the adult population of this country, and spells lack of progress in many social aspects of our lives. Our children and future generations are suffering profound violations of their rights to education, as a result,”
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