Angry SAs speak: Where is our Covid-19 vaccine, Oom Cyril?

In his latest address to the nation, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that South Africa would be staying on adjusted Lockdown Level 3 and that the government is in the process of procuring a vaccine through three channels. The majority of the doses will come from AstraZeneca and health minister Zweli Mkhize has said he expects to start obtaining vaccines next month, inoculating 67% of the population by the end of the year.

As South Africa's Covid-19 cases continue to rise and fears of the new variant (known as 501.v2) mount, scientists and medical professionals alike are demanding to know why there have been so many delays in procuring a vaccine.

Read also: Vaccine: Government defends itself in delay accusations

The BizNews community also took to social media to have their say about Cyril's announcement and the ANC's 'aggressive' vaccination roll-out programme thus far.

An annoyed Sibusiso says, "CR and the Corrupt ANC command council have not beaten Covid-19, but have destroyed the economy. They have had knee jerk responses that have made no sense, done very selective policing on compliance and allowed the super spreaders, like taxis, funerals and taxi ranks to remain open. So that is why we are having record breaking infection rates and deaths, more worse than when we were in level 5 lockdown. The ANC have basically politicised the response and stolen a lot of the monies that were supposed to be dedicated to procuring PPE and the vaccine."

von Jagendorf says, "The only way to get the vaccine into the country soon is to completely bypass ANC Government and get private Medical Aids and Hospitals to bring it in. ANC cadres will not bring it unless there is a huge bribe on offer for them."

Sharing his sentiment is Roger Pacey. "Maybe the vaccine will be here by the time the third wave hits. Irony would be if the vaccine only becomes generally available once the country has herd immunity and we don't need it any more. Since the vulnerable are last in the queue (behind politicians, healthcare workers and prisoners) they will have either survived or died before there is an opportunity to vaccinate them."

Commenting on the BizNews article, 'Covid-19: Leaders call for heads to roll over SA vaccine lag', andrewa says: 

"The ANC cadres simply haven't been able to work out a method of profiting from the vaccine as they did from the corrupt supply of PPE yet. As soon as they do so will become generally available to the South African population."

"The ANC don't have to care about governing well, they can be the worst govt in the world, the 17 million they are bribing with grants will vote them in again and again and again for the pittance they receive and for the dependency the ANC created for them – uneducated, coping with a poor economy and poor State services, while the rest of the country flies into the ground," says Fanie Kuhn.

Read also: Covid-19 vaccine rollout to cost SA R20.6bn for 67% of the population

"In the South African context 'fast' and 'vaccine deployment' can't be used in the same sentence," says Sara Short. 

Sibusiso says, "#DownANCDown. They cannot organise anything, and steal everything. There is a third wave coming in June/July and we still won't have the vaccine by then."

Earlier this year, Pfizer and BioNTech SE offered to supply South Africa with their vaccine at a discount. Bloomberg reported that the president's office still described the cost as 'prohibitive', sparking outrage amongst the medical fraternity and BizNews readers.

As inoculation programmes take place around the world, South Africans can only hope that the government will follow through, despite its previous lack of transparency.