The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls on the inter-ministerial committee (IMC) headed by Deputy President, David Mabuza, to provide an urgent and honest report back on South Africa’s vaccine rollout programme which is yet to begin in the middle of March.

The DA says while the government has tried to create the impression that South Africa has started its vaccine programme, the truth is that the vaccines being administered thus far are merely part of a Johnson & Johnson trial – the Sisonke Protocol. This part of the vaccine rollout phase is perhaps the simplest as it targets healthcare workers in healthcare facilities. 

What is an impending crisis is how we in are tending on reaching the millions of remaining healthcare workers and the most vulnerable who require the vaccine when we can hardly put together 10 000 vaccinations per day.

South Africa is currently only managing to vaccinate an average of just over 6 000 people per day. Even if we manage to ramp up the vaccination to 10 000 people per day – which is wholly inadequate – it would still take us 4 000 days, essentially 10-11 years to meet government’s target of vaccinating 40 million people to reach population immunity. This will mean that instead of vaccinating 65% of the population by the end of the year, the target will only be met by 2031.

It is becoming apparent that South Africa’s vaccine rollout has failed before it has even started. The DA therefore calls for an honest diagnosis of where South Africa currently stands on the logistics of the vaccine rollout.

While government has long held that the issue is the throttled supply of the vaccine – due to our tardy strategy of acquiring vaccines – this is simply a slow train to nowhere. The third wave of infections hangs over South Africa like a grim reaper and the Department of Health keeps celebrating mediocrity that will cost us lives. Countries world over are vaccinating large chunks of their populations while we are still scrambling to get to 200 000 vaccines a month into our rollout process.

The Deputy President is expected to answer questions in the National Assembly this week, and we will certainly use this as an opportunity to grill him on what the delays are and how these challenges will be addressed. The very function of the IMC which was convened by the President was meant to provide political and administrative accountability over this process. It is time that government stops ducking and diving and level with the country on this process.

The opposition party adds that if South Africa fails to meet its vaccine deadlines, we will remain in an endless loop of lockdowns and Covid-19 infections which will cost us lives and shove millions into an inescapable cycle of poverty. There has never been a greater imperative for the South African government than this. Silence on this can only mean the crisis is worse than anticipated. That is why we need an urgent update on this process.