SECTION27 will be applying to intervene in the African Christian Democratic Party case after the party asked the Pretoria High Court in October to help stop the roll-out of Covid-19 Pfizer vaccine to children.
Julia Chaskalson, spokeswoman for Section27, said vaccinations for adolescents must continue so schools can reopen fully and safely.
“The intervention intends to highlight the substantial teaching and learning challenges posed by the current conditions of schooling, and the crucial role schools play in offering socio-economic safety nets for pupils.It is therefore imperative that learners are able to get back to daily learning as quickly as possible. This necessitates continuing the vaccination of adolescents,” she said.
This as the ACDP leader Reverend Kenneth Meshoe believed mandatory vaccines or vaccine passports would amount to the “dompas”.
According to Meshoe,what’s even more disturbing is that President Cyril Ramaphosa announced government had set up a task team that would undertake broad consultations on making vaccination mandatory for specific activities and locations. He said this announcement directly contradicted all his earlier undertakings that vaccinations would not be made mandatory.
“The ACDP is on record for opposing vaccine passports or mandatory vaccines. We are deeply concerned about Ramaphosa’s comments about introducing measures that make vaccination a condition for access to workplaces, public events, public transport and public establishments. This, in our view, will be discriminatory and will amount to the ‘dompass’ of the apartheid era,” said Meshoe.
“While conceding that the introduction of such measures is a difficult and complex issue, the president states that if we do not address this seriously and as a matter of urgency, we will continue to be vulnerable to new variants and will continue to suffer new waves of infection. How can making vaccines mandatory stop citizens from being vulnerable to new variants?” said Meshoe.
He said his party supported the decision to review the use of the Disaster Management Act with a view to ultimately lift the National State of Disaster. “We, like many others, have been opposed to the ongoing lockdown, which has devastated businesses, employment and the economy.”