President Ramaphosa is locked in meetings today to discuss possible new lockdown restrictions for the busy festive season while the restaurant industry pleads for looser restrictions or face the alternative of a jobs bloodbath.
But with mandatory vaccinations surely on the slate for discussion, should public interest override personal choice when it comes to vaccinations?
Professor Keymanthri Moodley, from the department of medicine and director at the centre for medical ethics and law housed at Stellenbosch University, believes this to be the case.
“In my view there is a strong ethical case to be made for a vaccine mandate. I agree with Jeffery Gerber and Paul Offit, paediatricians and epidemiologists who wrote in an editorial in Science: ‘a choice not to get a vaccine is not a risk free choice; rather it’s a choice to take a different and more serious risk…’”
Moodley carefully makes the case for a vaccine mandate and how it should be introduced within South Africa while also making provision for not taking the vaccine, like health risks, a serious allergic reaction to the vaccine would qualify, and religious reasons, which would be a tricker slope to navigate.
Read her full piece in The Conversation here.
Khaya Sitole writes that Ramaphosa must make haste with the decision of whether to introduce vaccine mandates. Sitole says that the question of freedom of choice must be considered but any such mandate will surely be tested at the Constitutional Court.
But if we are to avoid a jobs bloodbath, just as the restaurant and hospitality industry has been crying about, we need to enforce mandates now (Subscribe to read).
And the battleground over vaccine mandates has already been set with several organisations making it clear that they would approach the ConCourt for clarity on the matter to see whether such a mandate would, indeed, be constitutional.
The South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) will lead the coalition of organisations and says it will encourage mass vaccination but opposes the idea of mandatory vaccinations in the workplace.
Looks like we’re heading for a legal battle where the highest court in the land decides the outcome, a la the Supreme Court in the United States. We truly are a highly polarised and divided society.
Meanwhile, the heat has been turned up on the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and its chief, Shamila Batohi, in the wake of Hermione Cronje’s early exit from the legal body as the head of the Investigating Directorate (ID).
Batohi gave a rather meek performance to the media when she failed to answer questions adequately about why there have been zero state capture convictions to date (Subscribe to read).
Natasha Marrian argues that Batohi needs more time at the helm of the NPA to fix the damage done by the Zuma years (Subscribe to read). Business Day writes in its editorial that the NPA must be overhauled and fixed from the ground up or we risk seeing the decay and ultimate death of our precious and hard-fought-for democracy.
Here’s a roundup of interesting opinions, analyses, and editorials:
The joke’s on us, South Africa. The cruel logic of Omicron travel bans — debunked – Daily Maverick
As ANC decays, the SACP and Cosatu might soon have to make important decisions about their future – Daily Maverick
Twitter founder @jack tweets resignation, has ‘bone-deep’ trust in his successor – Daily Maverick
TONY LEON | Today politics says goodbye to a man whose name belies his character – Sunday Times Daily (Subscribe to read)
CAIPHUS KGOSANA | Deck the electoral halls with holly — electoral reform is in the air – Sunday Times Daily (Subscribe to read)
JUSTICE MALALA: ANC – next stop, extinction – Financial Mail (Subscribe to read)
KATE THOMPSON DAVY: Facebook under siege again: privacy, profit and question of responsibility – Business Day (Subscribe to read)
Karyn Maughan | 10-year delay in charging Hlongwa is an indictment on SA law enforcement. Here’s why – News24
